SIXTEENTH DAY OF FASTING 
high. A broken-down canoe had been left on the shore. 
We worked many hours trying to mend her so that we 
could proceed down the river. But we wasted the entire 
day, working feverishly for six or seven hours, trying to 
stop up great holes as big as my fist, one sleeve of my 
coat being used for the purpose, and replacing a plank 
which was missing at her stern. 
When we at length summoned our last atom of 
strength to launch her, she immediately filled with water 
and went to the bottom like a piece of lead. That was 
the end of the canoe. We had not the strength to float 
her again. 
Building a raft was impossible, as no wood was found 
that floated. In reconnoitring round the hut, to our great 
joy we discovered some caju and some guy aba trees; also 
some more roots of mandioca now become wild. 
That was our sixteenth day of fasting, and it can well 
be imagined how quickly we devoured what little unripe 
fruit was hanging from the trees. Once more we tried the 
experiment of cooking the mandioca roots. We had now 
only five matches left. It was curious to note with what 
care we prepared dried wood and leaves so that no chance 
would be lost in getting a flame. Fortunately the first 
match struck did its work well, and we soon had a big 
fire inside the hut, on which we roasted the mandioca . 
As I have explained elsewhere, the fruit of the caju 
has an outward nut which has highly caustic properties, 
and is deadly poisonous to eat uncooked but quite edible 
when roasted. After eating all the fruit, we kept those 
nuts and put them on the fire; in the evening we sat 
down to what seemed to us a luxuriant meal. 
We had not patience to wait for the caju nuts to be 
properly roasted. When I ate them my nose, lips, tongue, 
and fingers became badly burned by their caustic juice. 
No sooner had we eaten that meal than we all became 
violently ill. I dropped down unconscious, rejecting 
vol. ii.— -19 289 
