284 



HISTORY OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



the purpose, precautions must be taken, by rais- 

 ing hillocks whereon to set the cuttings, against 

 the effects of excessive moisture, which would 

 rot the plants : some moisture is, notwithstand- 

 ing this, needed by the plant at its earliest stages. 

 There are nine different species of jatropha 

 enumerated by botanists, only two of which are 

 cultivated for human food, the jatropha manihot, 

 or bitter cassava ; and the jatropha janipha, or 

 sweet cassava. 



The first of these varieties, when in its natural 

 state, is highly poisonous ; while the other, al- 

 though equally agreeable and wholly innocuous, 

 is yet not cultivated to anything like an equal 

 extent. The two roots are very similar in ap- 

 pearance, their only perceptible difference being 

 a tough, ligneous fibre or cord running through 

 the heart of the sweet cassava root, which the 

 bitter variety is wholly without. Bread is made 

 of both kinds, which is palatable and wholesome ; 

 and although its taste may be thought somewhat 

 harsh by persons accustomed to soft fermented 

 bread made from wheaten flour, cassava bread is 

 not without its admirers, and is in such high re- 

 pute with those who have been accustomed to 

 its use, as to be frequently procured at some ex- 

 pense and trouble by Creole families who have 

 transferred their residence to Europe. - 



The tubers are spindle-shaped, much resem- 

 bling parsnips in appearance ; they are generally 

 about fourteen or fifteen inches long, and four 

 or five inches thick at the middle. When first 

 dug out of the ground they are washed clean ; 

 the rind, which is of a dark colour, is then peeled 

 off, and the root is ground or grated. In Guiana 

 the mode of preparation is as follows : The root 

 is rasped in large tin or wooden graters, fixed on 

 benches, beliind which the women employed in 

 making it stand in rows. A sufficient quantity hav- 

 ing been rasped for one time — ^f or the surplus would 

 ferment and spoil — it is put into long circular 

 baskets of plaited rushes, about ten feet long and 

 nine inches in diameter, called mangneras. These 

 are hung up with weights attached to the lower 

 end, which draw the plaited work tight together, 

 diminishing its capacity, and squeezing out the 

 juice. When all the fluid is extracted, the man- 

 gueras are emptied of their contents on raw 

 hides laid in the sun, where the coarse flour 

 soon dries. It is then baked on smooth plates 

 made of diy clay, with a slow fire below. This 

 is the most difficult part of the process. The 

 coarse flour is laid perfectly dry on the hot 

 plates, where the women, with a dexterity only 

 to be acquired by practice, spread it out in a 

 round and very thin layer, nearly the size of the 

 plate it is laid on. This they do merely with a 

 piece of calabash, which they keep in constant 

 motion, pressing gently every part of the sur- 

 face, until the heat has united the meal into a 

 raise, without in the least altering its colour or 



scorching it. Their metliod of turning a cassava 

 cake of that size resembles slight of hand, for 

 they effect it with two pieces of split cane with- 

 out breaking it, though scarcely so thick as a 

 dollar, and only as yet half cemented together, 

 and of a substance always brittle, especially when 

 warmed. This bread is very nourishing, and 

 will melt to a jelly in a liquid ; but it is danger- 

 ous if eaten in any quantity when dry, as it 

 swells on being moistened to many times its ori- 

 ginal bulk. It will keep good for any length of 

 time if preserved in a dry place. The expressed 

 juice deposits, after standing for some time, a 

 fine white starch, which, when made into jelly, 

 is not to be distinguished from that prepared 

 from the arrow root. 



To whatever cause the poisonous quality of 

 the juice of bitter cassava may be owing, it is so 

 highly volatile as to be entirely dissipated by 

 exposure to heat. Even a comparatively low 

 temperature suffices for correcting its deleterious 

 nature ; for when the root has been cut into 

 small pieces and exposed during some hours to 

 the direct rays of the sun, cattle may be fed on 

 it with perfect safety. If the recently extracted 

 juice be drunk by cattle or poultry, these will 

 speedily become much swollen, and die in con- 

 vulsions; but if this same liquid is boiled with 

 meat and seasoned, .it forms a favourite soup, 

 called by the Brazilians casserepo, and which is 

 found to be wholesome and nutritious. Dr 

 Pinckard mentions having partaken of this soup 

 in Demerara. 



Stedman acquaints us that the Indians of 

 Guiana, among whom cassava forms the chief 

 bread, first grind the root on a rough stone, and 

 then, for the purpose of separating the juice, pre- 

 pare a curious kind of press out of reeds, which 

 being disposed in the form of a long tube, and 

 secured at bottom, the ground pulp is introduced,, 

 and the press being suspended to a tree, a heavy 

 stone or log of wood is fixed to the bottom, the 

 weight of which draws the tube gradually to- 

 gether, by which means the juice is squeezed 

 through the interstices. Occasionally the juice 

 is collected into a receptacle, and is then used for 

 the poisoning of arrows. The baking process of 

 these inhabitants of the woods is similar to that 

 described above, with this only difference, that, 

 being without iron plates, their cooking is per- 

 formed upon heated stones. 



The Indians eat the simple root after having 

 roasted it in hot ashes, without any subsequent 

 preparation. They also ferment the juice of the 

 plant with the addition of molasses, and produce 

 an intoxicating liquid, of which they partake 

 but too freely. This knowledge they possessed 

 before they were ever visited by Europeans, thus 

 affording one out of many examples of the almost 

 universal use among nations, however differently 

 situated, of some kind of stimulating and intox- 



