TRADE 



375 



long voyages up the branch streams. The search for 

 Tndia-rubber has commenced but very lately ; the tree 

 appears to grow plentifully on some of the rivers, but 

 only an insignificant fraction of the immense forest has 

 yet been examined. Grass hammocks are manufactured 

 by the wild tribes, and purchased of them in considerable 

 quantities by the salsaparilla collectors. They are knitted 

 with simple rods, except the larger kinds, which are woven 

 in clumsy wooden looms. The fibre of which they are 

 made is not grass, but the young leaflets of certain kinds 

 of palm trees (Astryocaryum). These are split, and the 

 strips twisted into two or three-strand cord, by rolling 

 them with the fingers on the naked thigh. Salt-fish and 

 mishira are prepared by the half-breeds and civilized 

 Indians, who establish fishing stations (feitorias) on the 

 great sand-banks laid bare by the retreating waters, in 

 places where fish, turtle, and manatee abound, and spend 

 the whole of the dry season in this occupation. Turtle 

 oil is made from the eggs of the large river turtle, and is 

 one of the principal productions of the district ; the mode 

 of collecting the eggs and extracting the oil will be de- 

 scribed in the next chapter. 



I know several men who have been able, with ordinary 

 sobriety and industry, to bring up their families very re- 

 spectably, and save money at Ega, as collectors of the spon- 

 taneous productions of the neighbourhood. Each family, 

 however, besides this trade, has its little plantation of 

 mandioca, coffee, beans, water melons, tobacco, and so 

 forth., which is managed almost solely by the women. 

 Some do not take the trouble to clear a piece of forest for 

 this purpose, but make use of the sloping, bare, earthy 

 banks of the Solimoens, which remain uncovered by water 

 during eight or nine months of the year, and consequently 

 long enough to give time for the ripening of the crops of 

 mandioca, beans, and so forth. The process with regard 

 to mandioca, the bread of the country, is very simple. A 

 party of women take a few bundles of maniva (mandioca 

 shoots) some fine day in July or August, when the river 

 has sunk some few feet, and plant them in the rich alluvial 

 soil, reckoning with the utmost certainty on finding a 

 plentiful crop when they return in January or February. 

 The regular plantations are all situated some distance 

 from Ega, and across the water, nothing being safe on the 

 mainland near the town on account of the cattle, some 



