JERKED BEEF. 



169 



if by magic, at the first touch of the knife. The 

 bones also had distinct places allotted them, as 

 well as the fat, not the slightest vestige of which 

 was any where allowed to remain attached to the 

 meat. When every thing was completed, and the 

 ground clear, the leading man of each set went 

 carefully round his cell to see that the whole was 

 in order, and that each piece of meat was hung up 

 correctly : the exact number of pieces I omitted 

 to record, but it is always the same, and if any 

 one be missing, or misplaced, it is immediately 

 remarked by the man who inspects the cell. The 

 head, the back-bone, and the legs, were next chop- 

 ped into small pieces, and thrown into the boilers, 

 that not a particle of fat might be lost ; and I ob- 

 served they even took the pains to strip off a thin 

 skin from each of the ribs. The finer parts of 

 the tallow were now spread out on a frame in the 

 shape of a boy's kite, and hung up in one of the 

 minor divisions. 



The three men who had been employed in cut- 

 ting up the bullock now commenced an operation, 

 peculiar, I believe, to South America, namely, 

 the preparation of what is called by us jerked 



