26 On the Aborigines of Brazil. 



in the neighbourhood of dwellings, and their berries used 

 both ripe and unripe along with meat. The use of these 

 condiments among the Indians is excessive. The poisonous 

 juice of the root of the Mandiocca, when boiled down to the 

 consistency of a fluid extract, loses its noxious properties. 

 In it the Indian steeps a great quantity of dried berries of 

 pepper, especially the C. cerasiforme, and makes of it a sauce, 

 which he uses in great quantities with his food. This sauce 

 is very heating, and often produces in persons not accustom- 

 ed to its use, all the symptoms of acute poisoning. There 

 is no doubt, that the excessive use of it is injurious to the 

 Indians, and must favour that langour and plethora in the 

 abdominal system to which they are naturally disposed.* On 

 the other hand, the unseasoned flesh is also injurious, as it 

 is often in the first stage of putrefaction before it is eaten. 

 The nose of the Indian, it is true, is sensitive enough to the 

 smell of tainted meat, and he will not taste it as long as he can 

 get fresh, but he is often reduced to starvation, and then he 

 is compelled to eat it in whatever state it may be. 



At other times however, he eats besides these, many kinds of 

 flesh, which we reckon unwholesome, such as toads and several 

 kinds of worms. The ants which he eats dried in mandioc- 

 ca flour,f are probably not unwholesome, indeed may be useful 

 from the free Formic acid which they contain ; but the like 

 can hardly be assumed of many other insects, for instance the 

 larvae of the palm Chafer, (Calandra Palmarum) and of others 

 which he preserves, for the purpose of stewing them, or of 

 sucking out their fluids after he has bitten their heads off. J 



* According to German notions, Plethora abdominalis has to answer for half of 

 the diseases to which man is subject, perhaps even for more than sudor pedum 

 suppressus.— Tr. 



f Mandiocca starch prepared in a peculiar way, when it is called Cassaribo, is 

 said to possess antiseptic powers, quite equal to those of salt. — Tr. 



X Ants are a favorite condiment with the Burmese and Chinese ; shrimps eaten 

 after the manner described in the text, are believed by most European school boys 

 to have a peculiar relish.— Tr. 



, 



