INDIAN TRIBES OF NORTHERN MATO GROSSO, BRAZIL — OBERG 



39 



resulting circular cake is about one-eighth of an 

 inch in thickness and 10 inches in diameter, baked 

 yellow on one side but left white on the other. 

 This she places on another tuavi. Sometimes the 

 cakes are left flat but more often are folded over 

 once. 



Instead of using the dried balls, a woman can 

 prepare flour from the dried tubers (temiy,). The 

 tubers are ground and sifted in the same manner, 

 the resulting coarse flour being of the same con- 

 sistency. 



A much finer menyu is made by mixing starch 

 flour (tibudk) with tiburati. As starch flour is 

 scarce, this kind of menyu is baked only for visitors 

 and during important ceremonial occasions. The 

 two kinds of menyu can be distinguished not only 

 by texture but by taste. The coarse menyu 

 always tastes sour because the balls, when drying, 

 turn sour. The starch flour, however, is not sour, 

 and menyu made predominantly from this flour 

 has a sweet pleasant flavor. Menyu tastes much 

 better when it is hot and is usually eaten freshly 

 baked; broiled or boiled fish can be placed in the 

 fold to form a sandwich. When working in their 

 fields the Camayura drink gruel made by putting 

 pieces of menyu in a calabash filled with water. 



By boiling mohet long enough, the poisonous 

 acid is removed. The liquid can then be drunk 

 or can be boiled down still further until it forms 

 a thick starch pudding called kawi. This is the 

 evening food and is fed especially to young chil- 

 dren. Fish, sweetpotatoes, or ground corn can be 

 added to form kawi of different kinds. 



Sweetpotatoes are baked in hot ashes and appear 

 to be eaten at all hours of the day. When there is 

 a large supply of sweetpotatoes and it is feared 

 they will turn bad they are made into flour the 

 same way as manioc. This flour is mixed with 

 manioc flour and baked to form a special flat 

 sweet cake called yetiki. 



Fresh ears of maize are roasted before a fire. 

 Dried kernels are ground to form a coarse meal and 

 boiled to make a thick porridge. Cornmeal is also 

 mixed with manioc flour and baked into a flat cake 

 called kawatsiyi. 



Piqui fruit, after being processed, is eaten by 

 itself. Mangaba fruit is eaten fresh. As the fruit 

 falls off when it is ripe, people can be seen each 

 morning collecting and eating it near the village. 

 Bocaiuva palm nuts can be peeled and eaten raw 



or can be roasted before eating. The soft pulp 

 around the hard kernel is a nutritious food. Bra- 

 zilian cattlemen sometimes boil these nuts in milk 

 and it is said that a man is able to work hard all 

 day on this diet. The small coco babao nut with 

 its highly flavored pulp is eaten raw, as are 

 numerous other nuts and fruits whose names were 

 not determined. 



Compared with the preparation of manioc and 

 other plant foods, the cooking of fish and meat is 

 very simple. The smoking and drying of large 

 quantities of fish on long platforms has already 

 been mentioned. These fish can be eaten off the 

 platform or can be stored for later consumption. 

 For broiling small fish from 6 to 12 inches in 

 length, the Camayura make a tripod about 18 

 inches in height held together by three cross 

 pieces on which a layer of smaller sticks are 

 laid. The fish are cleaned and placed on the 

 sticks, and a small fire is kept going under them 

 until they are done. If the fish are a little larg- 

 er, four sticks instead of three are used. Fish 

 are generally cleaned but are not scaled. But 

 the Camayura have no aversion to broiling un- 

 cleaned fish. If the people are very hungry a 

 large fish will be thrown on red hot coals and even 

 before it is done a woman will begin pulling pieces 

 from the tail, putting them on pieces of menyu, 

 and handing them to her children. Fish are also 

 boiled in clay pots in which case they are first 

 cleaned. The task of cleaning and preparing fish 

 is the work of women, but the men make the plat- 

 forms and tripods used for cooking. 



Terrapins, which form an important part of the 

 diet, are cut out of the shell and boiled, or are 

 placed on their back, still alive, in a fire and 

 roasted. Sometimes boiled terrapin meat is mixed 

 with kawi. Even more important are terrapin 

 eggs, large quantities of which are boiled or 

 roasted in hot ashes. When boiled the white 

 around the yolk is thrown away and the rich yolk 

 only is eaten. When roasted, the shell cracks and 

 the white dries up and the yolk takes on a strong, 

 smoky, but not unpleasant taste. Terrapin eggs, 

 like fish and meat, are eaten with the ever-present 

 menyu. Diamondback turtles are prepared in the 

 same way as the terrapins, the eggs, if found, 

 being also eaten. 



Meat, as we have seen, forms a negligible part of 

 the diet. Monkeys, when shot, are skinned, cut up, 



