"Please tell me about Brazil nuts," was the next suggestion.
"Brazil nuts grow on one of the tallest trees of the forest," was the reply. "There are eighteen or twenty nuts in a hard shell like a cannon ball, and they are packed in so wonderfully that when once taken out no man is ingenious enough to put them all back again. I have seen Brazil-nut trees two hundred feet high, and fourteen feet through at the base, and not a branch within a hundred feet of the ground."
Frank asked how the nuts were gathered.
"They are allowed to ripen and fall to the ground," answered the guide, "partly because they will not keep if picked from the tree, and partly because it is difficult and dangerous to climb for them."
"It must be equally dangerous to stand under the tree, and risk being hit by one of the falling nuts."
"It is," was the reply. "The large shells or cases are five inches in diameter, and weigh two or three pounds; in their descent they attain a momentum resembling that of a cannon-ball, and often bury themselves out of sight in the ground. A nut falling on a man's head will certainly break the shell, and this has happened in many instances.
"The nut-gatherers build their huts among the trees, or more often a little distance from them; if under the trees, they give the roof a sharp incline, so that nuts falling upon it will slide off and do no harm. The wind blows in the morning, and at that time the gatherers stay at home, employing their time in breaking open the shells of the previous day's collection, and getting the nuts ready for packing in sacks. When the wind ceases they go out and collect what have been shaken off by the breeze.
"It is a hard life," continued the guide, "and many of the people die in consequence of the fatigue and exposure. They must tramp through the forest, and bring in heavy loads of nuts; they have scanty food; and the swamps and forests are full of malaria. They suffer from fevers and rheumatism, and are without medicines; they receive very low wages, and are constantly in debt to their employers; they lose their way, and starve to death; and sometimes their canoes laden with nuts are overturned, and the occupants drowned. But all these dangers combined are less than the peril from the falling nuts, and not a year passes without the death of nut-gatherers from this cause.
"The trade is conducted on the credit system, very much like that of the rubber-collecting industry. The annual shipment of Brazil nuts from Para is about eleven million pounds; and the nut trade is the third in importance among foreign exports, rubber and cacao being the first and second."
"Who eats the nuts?" was the next interrogatory.