YELLOW FEVER EXPEDITION 
545 
being eaten fresh, others cooked or made into fruit drinks with the addition of water 
and sugar. Mention also must be made of the essentially Amazonian c Assahy,' made 
from the fruit of the palm of the same name, by rubbing it with water and straining 
the resulting thick purplish emulsion, with a fascinating taste, which is taken with 
sugar and mandiocca (cassava) meal ; a similar ' drink ' is made from the bacaba palm 
but has not the same reputation for delicacy of flavour. 
The common light wines of Portugal form a common addition to the meals. 
Abuse of alcoholic beverages (e.g., whiskey) by Europeans is happily not a prominent 
feature of life in Para. 
The poorer natives and Portuguese are, in general, not given to great varieties 
of diet ; besides the staple Farinha (mandiocca or cassava meal) imported dried salt 
codfish, imported rice, and imported dried beef (xarque), and dried beans, form the 
principle items. A large fish (pirarucu) is caught and dried and salted and used to 
a considerable extent, but is said to be less economical than the imported fish. The 
native alcoholic beverage is the spirit distilled from fermented juice of the sugar 
cane (caixaca or cachaca), and leads to a certain amount of intemperance. 
T emperature. The temperature at Para varies between a maximum of about 
32 0 C to about 20 0 C (or in Fahrenheit scale, say 89"6° to 68°) ; during the five years 
1896 to 1900* the highest recorded temperature was 33- 5 0 or 92 - 3° F. During our 
stay we found the variation was between a day maximum of about 31 0 , rarely higher, 
occurring in the early hours of the afternoon, and a minimum of 21° at night during 
the 'dry season,' and 22 - 5° during the wet. The absence of really high degrees is 
probably due to the rain which falls almost every day in the afternoon during the so- 
called dry season, and the obscurance of the sun by the heavy rain or thunder-clouds. 
The rain showers are usually very localized, so that one day one part of the town or 
suburbs may escape, whilst the following day it may be the site of a heavy drenching ; 
consequently the observations with a single rain guage give but slight ideas of the 
general rain fall in the area. During the dry season (June to December) rain seems 
rarely to fall at night or in the morning ; there is a very heavy dew, so that in the 
morning grass, shrubs, etc., are soaking wet. 
The humidity of the air arising from the evaporation of immediately fallen rain, 
the neighbouring swamps, rivers, and backwater, is very considerable, and generally 
approaches the saturation point. The atmosphere is often particularly stifling about 
five to seven p.m., when the air is quite calm. The afternoon rain is ushered in with 
a squall of wind. 
From what has been said it may be gathered that it is rather the brainwork, 
combined with a considerable amount of monotony of climate and employment in an 
enervating climate, without much chance of recreation, that tells upon the health 
* Para Medico, I, No. 4, p. 112. 
