478 : NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
while in the larger Pataua it is nearly white — very slightly flesh- 
coloured. 
That with the smaller fruit is probably the smaller species 
spoken of in another place, distinct from CE. Minor ^ Mart., by the 
fastigiate pinnae. Pataua-yukise, L.G. (yukise is the general 
name for extracts produced by cooking either vegetables or meats, 
and is equally applied to gravy of flesh or fish, and the juice 
extracted from fruits, roots, etc.), jukilta de seje (Venezuela), is one 
of the most wholesome and-delicious drinks in nature. I still think 
the assai of Para the most delicious of the palm drinks, but to 
me it is not palatable without plenty of sugar, while pataua, now 
that I am accustomed to it, drinks better by itself. The taste is 
exceedingly rich, resembling more that of new milk than of any- 
thing else. It is prepared in the same way as assai, either by 
scalding the ripe fruit, or still better, by slightly boiling it, then 
breaking it up by hand in water, w^hen the thin light-coloured 
pulp mingles wTth the water and the brittle purple skins fall with 
the stones to the bottom. The liquid is either poured off or the 
w^hole is passed through a sieve which retains all the grosser parts. 
A small quantity of mandiocca is added, as in making xibe, and 
w^hen it has softened the whole is ready for drinking. Sometimes, 
instead of mandiocca or cassave, mingau de farinha (mandiocca 
boiled in water to the consistency of thick oatmeal gruel) is 
mixed with the pataua, and the whole drunk warm ; in this way 
it is very delicious, and is an excellent mess the first thing in the 
morning. Instead of mandiocca, boiled ripe plantains may be 
mashed up with the pataua, but the compound, though very sweet 
and pleasant to drink, is rather windy. 
Pataua contains perhaps the same quantity of oil as Bacaba. 
The oil is extracted occasionally near Para, but on the Alto Rio 
Negro only that of Bacaba is sometimes to be met with in the 
sitios. It is perhaps owing to the presence of this oil that pataua- 
yukise is rather aperient. When I have abstained for some time 
from drinking it and return to its use, it always produces a slight 
looseness in the bowels, but this effect passes off in a day or two, 
and is rather beneficial than otherwise. 
There w^as a small quantity of Pataua ripe when I left the 
Uaupes in March, and we have had it at San Carlos all through 
the months of April, June, July, August, and September. The 
trees are very abundant in dense forests on the west side of the 
river from the pueblito of San Felipe (by the fort of San Carlos) 
tow^ards the Guasie. 
The Indians in their sitios grow exceedingly fat during the 
season of Pataua, and there can be no doubt of its being very 
nourishing. 
