Amongst articles of food used by the Indians, a high place is given to certain roots which the Spaniards call batatas, and the Germans earth-apples (erdäpfel). It would be superfluous to describe with prolixity a thing so commonly seen. Those of Paraguay are decidedly superior to the German ones in size and flavour. These roots, or rather bulbs, are sometimes white, sometimes red, and sometimes yellow, in Paraguay. In my opinion the red ones are by far the worst, and the yellow the best of all.
[2]. Potatoes.
THE MANDUBI.
The mandubi, a fruit which Europe may envy America the possession of, resembles an almond in oiliness, sweetness, and, with the exception of the bark, in appearance. It grows under ground from a very beautiful plant about two feet high, which has a square hairy stalk of a reddish green colour. Its slender boughs are covered with four small leaves of a bright green on one side, and a whitish hue on the other, and are clothed with tender down. At the beginning of the little boughs grow small yellow flowers with red edges, hanging by a short stem, and surrounded by three leaflets. The roots of this plant are short, slender, and tortuous, and on them hang yellow oblong pods with a soft rind. Each of these pods contains either one or two kernels, (for there are various species of the mandubi,) beautifully covered with a red skin, and inclosing a very white and very rich pulp. These kernels, slightly fried or roasted, are much liked even by Europeans. The oil expressed from them is used instead of oil of olives, to which indeed it is superior, on lettuce; and many eat it with food in the place of butter or beef fat. I have often wished that this excellent fruit grew in Europe, where it certainly would be useful in many ways.
VARIOUS KINDS OF VEGETABLES.
Besides lentils, beans, fasels, and other kinds of vegetables, there is an infinite variety of melons, gourds, and cucumbers, brought from England, Italy, Germany, and Africa, into Paraguay, which, dressed in various ways, serve excellently both to fill the stomach and delight the palate. The curuguà, a kind of gourd, is of great size. Hanging from its stalk, it creeps like ivy along the neighbouring hedges and trees. This gourd is a by no means unpleasant dish, and a celebrated medicine for persons afflicted with the tertian ague. After being kept at home for many months, it fills the room with a delightful fragrance, which virtue the seeds likewise possess. Melons of almost too great sweetness grow every where here, but, unless plucked as soon as ripe, immediately get bitter and are filled with most offensive bugs. Water-melons are very plentiful and of great size. The soil of St. Iago del Estero, which is sandy, produces exceedingly sweet and enormously large melons. Their pulp, which is sometimes red, sometimes yellow, and always cold, greatly refreshes the mouth when parched with heat, and the other parts of the body, without injuring the stomach. They will keep great part of a year, if suspended in any open airy place. Rainy weather is extremely injurious to the young melons, for they absorb so much water that they either burst before they are ripe, or when ripe quickly putrify.
LETTUCE.
Lettuce grows in the winter months, if rightly cultivated, but very seldom in the summer, unless it be planted on the banks of rivers; for in a garden, by reason of the excessive heat of the sun, it soon blossoms, and turns to seed. European rapes grow successfully the first year they are planted, but degenerate to black and very pungent radishes the next.
THE RADISH.
Indeed the soil of Paraguay seems peculiarly favourable to radishes, which grow every where to an amazing size, and are very pernicious to wheat, by choking up the fields like tares.