38 



THREE TEARS IN THE PACIFIC. 



"They seldom see bread or meat, unless it be in the form 

 of 'farinha' or tapioca, and this a little labor supplies; if they 

 do not get it, for those who have so few wants, the banana 

 forms a substitute." The banana requiring neither care nor toil 

 in cultivation, becomes as useful as wheat itself.* A few 

 months are sufficient to produce the fruit from the sucker (by 

 which it is propagated), and all the attention necessary, is to 

 soften the soil about its roots, and every year or two, cut oflf 

 those stocks which have been productive. When green, the fruit 

 will yield a species of flour equal to that of rice ; when ripe, 

 it is delicious to the palate, and highly nutritious. Eight or 

 ten large bananas are sufficient food for a man during a whole 

 day. This plant not only affords bread and fruit, but also a 

 very fine sugar may be extracted from the latter. It enables 

 man to live almost without labor, and its ample leaves shade 

 him from a tropical sun. 



It is really a beautiful plant. It grows about twelve feet 

 high ; its branches or leaves are a foot broad, and from six to 

 eight feet long; they unite at the base, and spread asunder at 

 the top. When the leaf first appears, it is rolled, and rises from 

 amidst those which are already expanded ; and when mature, 

 unfolds itself into a spathe, and droops with the rest. The 

 fruit is produced in a large conical or pear-shaped mass at the 

 end of the stalk, which bends towards the earth by its weight. 

 This mass consists of loricating leaves, which enclose the young 

 fruit. As it ripens, the leaves curl up and drop off", disclosing 

 a circle of bananas, attached by their bases to the stalk ; the 

 second and third circle appear, but smaller than the first, be- 

 cause the nutritive juices are less, and at last the stalk is termi- 

 nated with a plummet-shaped end and abortive blossoms. At 

 first the color of the fruit is green ; but as it ripens, turns yel- 

 low — a beautiful king's yellow — which contrasts finely with 

 the clear maize green of the leaves. 



" In my walks through the city, I have seen a great deal of 

 the ' farinha' you speak of, and I am told, it forms a chief arti- 

 cle of diet with the slave population. " 



* See Humboldt's New Spun. Dennis. Histoire du Br^il. 



