THE MAGDALENA RIVER. 



73 



of cacao-trees, from which chocolate is made. They were not 

 over twenty-five feet high, smooth barked and big leaved. The fruit 

 looked very much like an oblong warty squash, and grew close to 

 the main trunk and large limbs. They were about eight inches 

 long, some green, others a deep purplish red, and when cut open 

 showed a white pith in which were imbedded bean-like seeds the 

 size of our lima beans but thicker. These, when ripe, are taken 



IGUANA TUBBRCULATA. 



out, roasted, and then ground between two stones, mixed with 

 coarse sugar, and the result is chocolate. Hung up against one of 

 the huts to dry, I saw several peccary skins of the plain unhanded 

 species {Dicotyles lahiatus). I was told that they were common in 

 the forest here. 



Lower down along the river the native huts are made of a wattle 

 of split bamboo, or small sticks, daubed with mud and thatched 

 with palm-leaves (see page 55), but here the walls are made in a 



