390 NARRATIVEOFAN 



CHAP, after which they put it in a prefs, to feparate the juice 

 • from the meal. This prefs is a kind of long- tube, made 

 of warimbo or reeds ; which being hung to a tree, and 

 filled vvith ground calTav i, a heavy ftone or log of wood is 

 fixed to the bottom, the weight of which gradually length- 

 ens the tube, which is comprefiTed in proportion, and the 

 liquid fubftance is fqueezed through the plated reeds. This 

 done, the meal is baked on a hot ftone in thin round cakes, 

 until it becomes brown and crifp, and then it is a whole- 

 fome food, that will keep good for half a year ; yet I muft: 

 acknowledge that the tafte, which by that procefs becomes 

 fweetifti, is at the fame time extremely infipid. The 

 extradted water of this root, if not carefully prevented 

 by the flaves, is fometimes drunk by cattle and poultry 

 on the eftates, whom it inftantly kills with convullive 

 tortures and fwelling ; yet this very liquid, if boiled with 

 pepper, butcher's meat, &c. is frequently made ufe of 

 for foup. None fho Id ufe the caffava root for food 

 but fuch as are perfectly acquainted with it : many peo- 

 ple having been poifoned, to my knowledge, by ufing 

 the one fpecies for the other; the diftindtion between 

 the two conftfting chiefly in a tough ligneous fibre or 

 cord running through the heart of the fweet or innocent 

 y caflava root, which the fatal or bitter has not. The acajou 

 nuts are alfo ufed by the Indians ; and they often bring 

 them to Paramaribo, where they are called inginotto. 

 The kernels of thefe nuts are in fize and ihape very like 



lambs 



