1850.] FOOD OF THE INDIANS. 171 
a great measure the success of the entomologist in these 
parts of South America. 
There were two other rooms in the house where I 
lived, inhabited by three families. The men generally 
wore nothing but a pair of trowsers, the women only a 
petticoat, and the children nothing at all. They all lived 
in the poorest manner, and at first I was quite puzzled to 
find out when they had their meals. In the morning early 
they would each have a cuya of mingau ; then about 
mid-day they would eat some dry farinha cake or a roasted 
yam ; and in the evening some more mingau of farinha 
or pacovas. I could not imagine that they really had 
nothing else to eat, but at last was obliged to come to 
the conclusion that various preparations of mandiocca and 
water formed their only food. About once a week they 
would get a few small fish or a bird, but then it would 
be divided among so many as only to serve as a relish 
to the cassava bread. My hunter never took anything 
out with him but a bag of dry farinha, and after being 
away fourteen hours in his canoe would come home and 
sit down in his hammock, and converse as if his thoughts 
were far from eating, and then, when a cuya of mingau 
was offered him, would quite contentedly drink it, and 
be ready to start off before daybreak the next morning. 
Yet he was as stout and jolly-looking as John Bull him- 
self, fed daily on fat beef and mutton. 
Most of the wild fruits — which are great favourites with 
these people, especially the women and children — are of 
an acrid or bitter taste, to which long practice only can 
reconcile a foreigner. Often, when seeing a little child 
gnawing away at some strange fruit, I have asked to taste 
