84 
the Straits Settlements the prices quoted are always below those 
of smoke-cured Para. The following graphic account of the pre- 
paration of Para rubber is taken from Wells’ * Voice of Urbano" 
(London: Allen, 1888) :— 
‘ Master and men then departed to various out-buildings, where 
. the Indian boys and women, after partaking of a very hasty and 
meagre repast of dried piraurucu (a large river fish) and farinha, 
were set to work at converting the milk, or sap of the rubber 
tree, into. india-rubber. 
“This process does not require any great manual labour; it is 
e 
P 
rather a work of patience. In a distant corner of the yard, under 
of the Urucuri palm was burning on several fires. The burning 
ac 
boy h 
hand; the blade of the paddle is dipped into the milk, which, 
adhering to the wood, is held in the smoke of Urucuri, and 
rapidly eoagulated and turned almost at once to the black india- 
rubber of commerce. The round blade of the paddle, covered 
on the gr in 
until the collected sap is exhausted and the rubber stored away. 
“ Early the next morning, the Indians will again go away in the 
canoes to the forest, there to empty out the contents of the tins 
that have been previously left adhering to the rubber trees by a 
dab of clay below a gash in the bark, whence the milk slowly 
ps into the tin pans. The pan, when emptied, is then 
gnacio's men all the sap that it was possible to obtain was taken . 
from every tree " (pp. 119-120). 
In the Museum No. 1 at Kew there is shown, in case 93 [now 
05], on the ground floor, a complete series of specimens 
illustrative of the Para rubber industry 
In the early stages, when the rubber was exported in small’ 
quantities, it appeared in the form of shoes or the grotesque form ` 
in the form 
