[181] Spruce, ii. 381.
[182] Manihot aypi.
[183] The description given by Fr. Pinto in Dr. de Lacerda’s eighteenth-century journal of the preparation of manioc flour by the Murunda Kaffirs differs only from the Indian method in that the root is not squeezed, merely soaked till “almost rotten,” then dried and pounded (R.G.S., The Lands of Cazembe, 1873, p. 129).
[184] It would seem that the Boro use what is known in Brazil as Farinha de aqua, and the Witoto make Farinha secca (cf. Spruce, i. 11-12). Brazilian arrowroot and tapioca are products of the manioc prepared in different ways. Only the Boro and Menimehe make Farinha de aqua.
[185] “A mandiocca oven (called budari in Barré)” (Spruce, ii. 477-8).
[186] Bates noted that he saw Indians on the Tapajos season this sauce with ants in place of fish (Bates, i. 318-19).
[187] Wallace, p. 340.
[188] Simson mentions salt-licks in the neighbourhood of the Rio Salado Grande (Simson, p. 238).
[189] The ashes of the drum tree (Cecropia peltata) “are saline and antiseptic” (Spruce, ii. 447). “A kind of flour which has a saline taste” is extracted from the fruits of the Inaja palm (Maximiliana regia), and the Jara palm (Leopoldinia major), and the Caruru, a species of Lacis (Wallace, p. 340). Cuaruru is given by Spruce as a native name for Pogostemon sp.; when this is burnt the ashes give salt (Spruce, ii. 520).
[190] Cf. Torres Straits, “The chief meal of the day is taken at night, soon after sundown; the remains are eaten in the morning,” iv. 131.