(4.) FEATHER APRON.
(See [page 1255].)
BEAD APRON.
(See [page 1256].)
Several of these tipities generally hang to the roof or the cross-beam of the hut, so as to be ready for use when wanted. One of them is then filled with grated cassava, which is thrust into the elastic tube as tightly as possible, so as to cause it to become very much shorter, and very much thicker in the middle. Underneath the tipiti is placed an earthenware bowl to receive the juice. Vessels such as these are made by the natives, and although they are very fragile, as the clay is never thoroughly kneaded, and the baking is insufficient, they can endure the fire well enough for cooking purposes. The [vessel] which is represented in the illustration is of a deep brown color, striped and spotted with black.
Besides these soft and fragile bowls, the natives make bottles for the purpose of carrying water. Some of these clay bottles are really elegant in form, and show evidences of artistic feeling on the part of the potter. A [figure] of a double water bottle, with its earthenware stoppers, is given on page 1249.
A heavy weight is then fastened to the bottom of the tipiti, which is consequently elongated and narrowed, so as to compress the contents forcibly, and squeeze out the juice that remains in the cassava. After a while a still stronger pressure is obtained by means of the lever. A pole is passed through the loop at the bottom of the tipiti, and the shorter end of it is lashed to one of the upright posts of the house. The heavy weight—usually a large stone—is then hung to the longer end of the pole, so as to produce a powerful leverage on the tipiti, and compress the cassava still further.
When the process has arrived at this state, the cassava maker often adds her own weight to that of the stone, by sitting on the end of the lever, and with her baby slung in its cradle on her back, occupies herself in some of the lighter feminine occupations.
The cassava is now fit for baking, for which purpose it is placed on circular iron plates, which are laid over the fire like the “girdles” on which oat cakes are baked. Although little known in this country under its proper name, cassava is largely used under the name of semolina, which is nothing more than the cassava roughly ground to a coarse sort of grain.
Nothing of this useful plant is thrown away. We have seen that the farinaceous matter can be rendered wholesome by being deprived of its poisonous juice, and we shall now see that even this juice itself can be rendered useful. If man or beast were to drink it as it pours from between the interstices of the tipiti, they would swell, and die in great agony. But by means of boiling the poisonous principle is driven off and the juice changes to a deep brown liquid, which is well known under the name of cassareep, and extensively used as a sauce. It is the foundation of the “pepper-pot” of the West Indies, and when used by natives is so highly impregnated with red pepper, that when they hospitably serve a white stranger with cassava bread and cassareep sauce, the mouth of the stranger is excoriated by the quantity of capsicum.
If the reader will refer to the illustration representing a [Warau house], on page 1244. he will see the various processes of cassava-making. On the right hand is seen a woman kneeling before the grater, and scraping the cassava into the dish or basket. Hanging to the cross-beams of the hut are two of the tipiti presses, one filled ready for the weight and the lever, and the other stretched nearly to its full extent. A woman is sitting on the lever, and so expressing the last drops from the cassava into the bowl. The baking of the cassava cake is shown in the background on the right hand.