INDIAN MANUFACTURE. 49 



diverging from the cabin. These paths constitute the chief 

 value of a location, rather than the soil, and are sold or rented 

 to the occupants at moderate prices. The Seringeros generally 

 locate as near the town as possible, that their supplies and mar- 

 ket may be at hand ; for they depend upon the rubber for 

 subsistence. The hut, or cabin, is built upon some branch of 

 the river, or on some of the numerous tide creeks which pene- 

 trate the whole of this flat country near the river. The cabin 

 is built on posts set in the ground, with the floor elevated from 

 two to four feet, so as to be above the inundations and spring 

 tides. It is thatched with some kind, of palm-leaf, and the rind 

 of the same tree furnishes the boards for the floor. They live 

 simply and cheaply ; for a basket of farina, a coarse quality of 

 tapioca, made from the mandicoa root, and costing from 50 to 

 150 cents, sustains a person some thirty-five days, and is eaten 

 dry, or a little moistened, with the addition of a piece of dried 

 fish roasted. This, with coffee, is the standing food of the coun- 

 try people, Indians, and negroes, who are the collectors of rubber. 



The tree requires to be tapped every day, by making an inci- 

 sion into the bark with a species of tomahawk, about an inch 

 wide. Beneath each incision is attached a cup made of moist 

 clay, about the size and form of the half of a goose egg, which 

 keep their places by the adhesion of the clay. From six to ten 

 cups are placed upon a tree, which yield from two to five table- 

 spoonsful of milk each, per day. The trees are tapped from the 

 root to as far up as can be reached even by a scaffold. Each 

 incision makes a rough wound on the tree, which in time, 

 though not dead, makes them useless, because a smooth place is 

 required on which to attach the cups. 



The men start out at daylight to tap their trees, each taking 

 a ball of kneaded clay in his hand for making any cups that 

 may be wanted, and having made their circuit in three or four 

 hours, return to the house for breakfast. Soon after noon, they 

 make the round again, to collect the milk in gourds, slung in 

 thongs of bark, and hung over the shoulder. The cups are de- 

 tached from the tree to empty them, and remain covered up at 



