MOUNTAIN AIR. 



207 



some have believed tliat tliey were the original 

 fig-leaves of the first man and his wife. The 

 trunk-fibre does good service in all the stages be- 

 tween thread and cord : the fruit yields wine, 

 sugar, and vinegar, besides bread and vegetable, 

 and even the flower is reduced to powder and 

 mixed with snuff. Xever transplanted and allowed 

 to grow from its own suckers, this banana has now 

 degenerated : it is easy to see, however, that it 

 comes of a noble stock. In parts of the interior 

 the people have during a portion of the year 

 little else to live upon but this fruit, boiled, baked, 

 and dried : it then becomes a nauseating diet, 

 causing flatulence, indigestion, heart-burn, and 

 other gastric evils. After endming the infliction 

 I never again could look a banana in the face. 



Issuing from the dripping canopy, we breasted 

 a steep goat-track, we forded a crystal burn, and 

 having reached the midway we sat down to enjoy 

 the rarified au% which felt as if a weight had been 

 suddenly taken off our shoulders ; it was Sao Paolo 

 after Santos. A palpable change of climate had al- 

 ready taken place, and the sunshine was tempered 

 with clouds which we now blessed. The view 

 before us was extensive and suggestive, if not 

 beautiful. The mountain fell under our feet in 

 rugged folds clothed with patches of plantains, 



