1848.] 
FRUIT OF THE ASSAI PALM, 
79 
quantity of tlie drink so mucli liked by tbe people liere, 
and which is very good when you are used to it. The 
fruit grows in large bunches on the summit of a gracefu . 
palm, and is about the size and colour of a sloe. On 
examining it, a person would think that it contained 
nothing eatable, as immediately under the skin is a hard 
stone. The very thin, hardly perceptible pulp, between 
the skin and the stone, is what is used. To prepare it, 
the fruit is soaked half an hour in water, just warm 
enough to bear the hand in. It is next rubbed and 
kneaded with the hands, till all the skin and pulp is 
worn off the stones. The liquid is then poured off, and 
strained, and is of the consistence of cream, and of a fine 
purple .colour. It is eaten with sugar and farinha ; with 
use it becomes very agreeable to the taste, something 
resembling nuts and cream, and is no doubt very nou- 
rishing ; it is much used in Para, where it is constantly 
sold in the streets, and, owing to the fruit ripening at 
different seasons, according to the locality, is to be had 
there all the year round. 
On the east side of the river, which we had kept along 
in our descent, there was more cultivation than on the 
side we went up. A short distance from the shore the 
land rises, and most of the houses are situated on the 
slope, with the ground cleared down to the river. Some 
of the places are kept in tolerable order, but there are 
numbers of houses and cottages unoccupied and in ruins,# 
with land once cultivated, overgrown with weeds and 
brushwood. Rubber-making and gathering cacao and 
Brazil-nuts are better liked than the regular cultivation 
of the soil. 
