30 TRAVELS ON THE AMAZON. \Ju7ie, 
ground ; and in harvesting, a portion is cut green, be- 
cause there are not hands enough to get it in quickly 
when it is ripe, and rice is a grain which rapidly falls 
out of the ear and is wasted. It is therefore seldom cul- 
tivated on a large scale, the greater portion being the 
produce of Indians and small landholders, who bring it 
to the mills to sell. 
In the morning, after a refreshing shower-bath under 
the mill-feeder, we shouldered our guns, insect-nets, and 
pouches, and, accompanied by Mr. Leavens, took a walk 
into the forest. On our way we saw the long-toed 
jacanas on the river-side, Bemtevi'^' flycatchers on the 
branches of every bare tree, and toucans flying with out- 
stretched biUs to their morning repast. Their peculiar 
creaking note was often heard, with now and then the loud 
tapping of the great woodpeckers, and the extraordinary 
sounds uttered by the howling monkeys, all telling us 
plainly that we were in the vast forests of tropical Ame- 
rica. We were not successful in shooting, but returned 
with a good appetite to our coffee and masseranduba 
milk, pirarucu, and eggs. The piraructi is the dried fish 
which, with farinha, forms the chief subsistence of the 
native population, and in the interior is often the only 
thing to be obtained, so we thought it as well to get used 
to it at once. It resembles in appearance nothing eat- 
able, looking as much like a dry cowhide grated up into 
fibres and pressed into cakes, as anything I can com- • 
pare it with. When eaten, it is boiled or slightly roasted, 
pulled to pieces, and mixed with vinegar, oil, pepper, 
onions, and farinha, and altogether forms a very savoury 
* “ Bemtevi” (I saw you well); the bird’s note resembles this word. 
