232 TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



sisted in preparing an intoxicating liquor (Eivir, 

 Viru, Vmhassa of" the Portuguese) from a decoc- 

 tion of maize. We went, as if by chance, to the 

 place chosen for the meeting, to witness the man- 

 ner in which they prepared this beverage, and 

 found there several women employed ; some were 

 pounding the grain in a hollow trunk of a tree, 

 others put the maize into an unburnt earthen ves- 

 sel, which was several feet high, narrow below, 

 and broad above, in which it was boiled with a 

 great quantity of water. On our entrance they 

 ran away, but seeing that we looked at them in a 

 friendly manner, they returned to their employ- 

 ment. One old woman, and several young ones, 

 took the coarsely ground and boiled flour out of 

 the pot with their hands, chewed it, and then put 

 it in the pot again. By this mode of treatment, 

 the decoction begins to ferment, and becomes in- 

 toxicating. * 



While we were looking at these not very inviting 

 operations, one of us saw a small serpent creep out 



* It is remarkable that this mode of preparing a fermented 

 liquor out of maize, mandiocca flour or bananas, is found 

 among the various Indian tribes of America, and seems pe- 

 culiar to this race. Wafer found it among the Indians on the 

 isthmus of Darien. (Voy. de Dampier. Arast. 1705, p. 228.) 

 They there call this beverage Chichach-capah ; in Potosi, where 

 the Benedictine monk, George Ruiz of Augsburg, according to 

 the manuscript accounts sent to his convent, also found it, 

 Chicha. The same custom likewise prevails in Cayenne, Su- 

 rinam, and on the coast of the Amazons. 



