214 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 
being well stirred the while. It is sometimes put 
up in barrels, and always commands a ready sale. 
During the baking process the poisonous quality, 
which is volatile, escapes, and the people eat with 
impunity these roots that in a raw state would prove 
poisonous. The juice itself is made into a drink by 
being boiled, which is palatable to a native. 
I noticed here a curious method in use to press the 
cassava dry after it was grated; it was a cone of 
woven reeds, so fonstructed that, when filled with 
cassava and hung up with a weight attached to its 
lower end, a continuous and equable pressure was 
applied to the whole mass. This cone was about four 
feet long, and perhaps six inches across at the mouth, 
or larger end, and is an invention of the Caribs, having 
been found in use by them by the earliest voyagers. 
This farine supplies the place of bread to a great 
extent, the natives preferring it to that article, and 
eating it dry by the handful. There are two varieties, 
the “sweet” and the “bitter” cassava; but the latter, 
though so dangerous, is more extensively cultivated 
than the former, which is harmless. 
After inspecting the preparation of the farine, we 
adjourned to Captain George’s cabin, where he re- 
galed me with numerous stories of the achievements 
of the Caribs during the war with the English in the 
last century. He firmly believed that his grandfather 
and other Caribs owed the preservation of their lives 
to certain charms obtained from an obeah man in Mar- 
tinique. 
“One time, six Carib kill um white gen’leman, but 
dey not see he serbant hide in de bush. When serbant 
get ’way he tell soldier, ‘Carib kill one buckra, my 
