144 
TRAVELS ON THE AMAZON. [^September, 
sub-acid taste, and when rubbed off in water and sweet- 
ened, forms an agreeable and favourite drink. In pre- 
paring the cacao, this pulp is not washed off, but the 
whole is laid in the sun to dry. This requires some care, 
as if wetted by rain or dew it moulds and is spoilt : on 
large cacao plantations they have a drying-frame running 
on rollers, so that it can be pushed under a shed every 
night or on the approach of rain. The price of good 
cacao is about 3^. for an arroba (thirty-two pounds). 
The fish are the piraructi, which abound in all the 
lakes here, and give plenty of employment to the In- 
dians in the dry season. The cattle estates are situated 
at the base of the adjacent serras, where there is a scanty 
pasture, but in the dry season the marshes which ex- 
tend to the Amazon afibrd abundance of herbage. The i 
calabashes, or “ cuyas,’’ are made in great quantities, and 
exported to Para and all parts of the Amazon. They are I 
very neatly finished, scraped thin, and either stained of 
a shining black or painted in brilliant colours and gilt. 
The designs are fanciful, with sometimes figures of birds | 
and animals, and are filled up with much taste and regu- 
larity. The Indian women make the colours themselves ' ' 
from various vegetable juices or from the yellow earth, ; 
and they are so permanent that the vessels may be con- 
stantly wetted for a long time without injmy. There is i 
no other place on the whole Amazon where painted cala- | 
bashes are made with such taste and brilliancy of colour. | 
We brought a letter of introduction to Senhor Nunez, j 
a Prenchman from Cayenne, who has a small shop in the | 
village ; and he soon procured us an empty house, to j? 
which we had our things carried. It consisted of two |j 
