90 



INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 1 2 



the water wheel, when desired, to come to a com- 

 plete stop. 



The cane is fed by hand into the press. The 

 juice {garapa) falls into a wooden trough about 4 

 inches square which carries it some GO feet or 

 more, where it falls into a large wooden tank 

 (qvurfola), placed inside the large farmliouse. 

 The crushed stalks {hagago) are dropped beside 

 the press until a considerable pile has accumulated 

 and are then removed by hand. 



When the operator is ready to turn the garapa 

 into pinga, he dips the juice out of the wooden tank 

 with a bucket and carries it to the damas, or large 

 wooden vats, where he adds m.aize mash {fermento 

 de milho) to the juice and leaves it to ferment. 

 The degree of fermentation is measured by an 

 instrument called the decimo. When it registers 

 15, which is ordinarily about 24 hours later, the 

 fermented juice is dipped out of the damas and 

 taken in buckets to the alamhique. 



The alamhique is a round copper vessel entirely 

 enclosed, about 5 feet in diameter and 5 feet high. 

 From the upper part, an inverted funnel leads off 

 and terminates in a copper coil which subsequently 

 passes 10 times around the inside of the nearby 

 resfriadeira, or condenser, a cylindrical tank, out 

 of which it eventually protrudes in the form of 

 a small spout. The condenser is made of cement 

 and is about 3 feet in diameter and 8 feet high. 

 Water is brought to it from about 60 feet away 

 by means of a long wooden trough around 12 inches 

 square which leads off the trough previously re- 

 ferred to. 



When the fermented juice has been placed in 

 the alamiigtie, the latter is closed off tightly and 

 a fire is lighted in a firebox below. The latter is 

 of brick and measures about 6i/^ feet wide by an 

 equal distance long and high. About 3 hours 

 after the fermented juice commences to boil, vapor 

 begins to enter the coils and to pass through the 

 condenser and be precipitated as pinga. The 

 liquid is then carried in small buckets and dumped 

 into huge vats, each with a capacity of from 2,000 

 to 3,000 liters, or approximately 450 to 675 gal- 

 lons, where it is left to "rest" several days, 

 subsequent to which it is placed in large barrels 

 and trucked directly to Sao Paulo, where it is sold 

 at wholesale. 



The still is able to handle daily about 250 gallons 

 of cane juice which ordinarily produce around 30 



gallons of pinga. During the month (February) 

 in which this farm was visited, however, and also 

 the previous month, the still had been in operation 

 only part time, owing to a lack of both cane and 

 water. 



MAKING OF CHAECOAIi 



With the disappearance of the forest which once 

 covered a considerable part of this region, the 

 making of charcoal, formerly an important occu- 

 pation, has declined until today it is rare to find 

 anyone occupied with this task. An exception is 

 a man working at present in the dense growth 

 along the left bank of the Tiete River. 



Timber is felled with an ax, a few square yards 

 at a time, and a fire is set to consume the leaves, 

 small twigs, and undergrowth and "to dry out the 

 branches and logs enough for making charcoal." 

 The wood is then chopped and split into pieces 

 about 41/^ to 5 feet long and not over 8 inches thick, 

 for ready handling in the caieira. 



To build a caieira, a space near the fallen tim- 

 ber, about 15 feet in diameter is first cleared and 

 leveled. This is known as the praga (square). 

 In the center of this cleared spot, sticks of wood 

 are stood on end to form a rough cone. Rows of 

 other sticks are placed around them until there is 

 piled up "as much as the charcoal-maker has cour- 

 age to tackle." Loose, dry dirt is then thrown 

 over the pile to form a small mound, called the 

 haldo (balloon), like that to be seen in plate 8, c. 

 Kindling, in the form of leaves and dry, soft, 

 fibrous twigs, are then thrust in at the apex of the 

 mound and set afire. When the fire has begun to 

 burn well, the opening is covered over and a hole 

 is made at the bottom of the mound to admit air 

 and thus draw the fire slowly downward. 



About a day later, when smoke no longer finds 

 its way out and the wood is therefore known to be 

 "well cooked," more dirt is piled on the mound 

 and the wood is left to smolder for 3 more days. 

 The dirt is then thrown to one side and the char- 

 coal is taken out and sacked. The tools used in 

 the entire process from timber to charcoal are only 

 four: the ax, the foice, the shovel, and a wooden 

 rake, with tines about 9 inches long. 



A second process, in which a jorno is substituted 

 for the caieira, is also employed. A forno is made 

 by digging a round pit about 6 feet deep and 9 to 

 10 feet in diameter. Advantage is taken of a sharp 

 variation in ground level to cut a short trench 



