478 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
on one side (rudely figured at a), into which fire is 
put, and another at the opposite (as at d), which 
-serves as a fiue. Of the articles laid on the budari, 
c is the brush of piassaba tied tightly round at 
midway, which serves for sweeping the oven before 
the cassava cake or farinha is spread out to bake ; 
d is the palm-leaf fan for blowing the fire ; and my 
Indians would have it that was another fan, but 
the hook at one corner (which, whenever it occurs 
in these figures, indicates a bit of liana-rope by which 
the utensil is hung up) renders it probable that 
something else was meant ; ^ is a stage (or shelf) 
such as may be seen of various sizes hung from the 
roof of an Indian's hut, but especially over the oven 
and hearth, the smoke from which acts as an antiseptic 
to the dried fish and other viands kept on the 
stages, and also partially keeps off the cockroaches ; 
/ is either the mandiocca-grater or, more probably, 
a fiat piece of board, sometimes with a hole to 
insert the fingers, which is used to raise the edges 
of the cassava cake and to aid in turning it over. 
All these articles are in use to this day throughout 
a vast extent of country on the Orinoco and Casi- 
quiari. Even in the Andes, a triangular or square 
fan, plaited by the Indians of the leaves of maize or 
wild cane, is the only bellows used by the Quitonian 
housewife. 
The figures marked B (Fig. 17) were declared 
by my Indians to be dolphins, whereof two species 
abound in the Amazon and Orinoco. 
C they said was plainly the same sort of thing 
as the big papers (maps) I was continually poring 
over. For a is the town — often consisting of a 
single annular house, with a road from it leading 
