BORO MANIOC-GRATER WITH PALM-SPINE POINTS
The Indian feeds at sunrise after he has had his drink of “tea” and his first bath. This morning meal is an informal one of cold cassava cake, and any meat that may have been left uneaten overnight, or a dip in the hot-pot. He eats sparingly, and never takes much of a meal if a day’s march or a hunt is in prospect. Nor does he carry food with him, unless he be going on a journey. Coca, which of course is but a stimulant, is sufficient sustenance in his opinion. Still, he will eat a little at any time it may be possible, and there is usually no lack of fruit for the taking in the bush.
The great meal of the day is towards sundown when the hunt is over, the quarry killed and cooked.[190] Then all the men, squatting round their private family fires in the big house, help themselves from their hot-pot and eat to the limit of its contents. An Indian will not take a bite at his food; he tears whatever he is eating into small pieces with his fingers. Among the Issa-Japura tribes, as with the Tukana, men and women do not eat together, and the children feed with the women. None of the tribes have any special observances or purifications before or after eating, so far as I am aware, nor are there any general restrictions, except so far as carrion and the intestines are concerned. But even these may at a pinch be made use of without prejudice, by resorting to the simple expedient of blowing, or rubbing with a magic stone, the two antidotes for all evils with the Indian. There are temporary food tabu for women, and certain prohibitions for children. These will be dealt with later.
The usual method of cooking is to rest the pot as described on the fire-logs themselves. Sometimes the pot is placed, like the pan for baking cassava, on lumps of clay, or on a triangle of sticks roughly made for the occasion. The sticks must be long in comparison to the height from the ground that is required, and are not tied, but merely so adjusted that each supports and locks the others. Such a tripod makes a firm seat, though never employed by the Indians for that purpose. I have never seen pots hung. The pot is covered with a single leaf, and the soup is stirred with any stick that comes to hand at the moment; there are no special ones, nor are any fashioned for use as ladles. Meat is almost invariably put in the hot-pot, but occasionally it is toasted over the fire.
When the women have cooked the food the men help themselves from the pot; they are not waited upon by their women. An Indian will help himself from the hot-pot at any time the fancy may seize him, or, for that matter, from any hot-pot, so long as the owner thereof is present. The tribal or chief’s fire carries the tribal hot-pot, which is open to all, as all contribute to it, at least all the unmarried warriors must do so. This is the hot-pot which always remains, and the fire that never dies out. The family hot-pot and fire is the concern of each individual family only.
Fruit is to be had in plenty, and throughout the year in this country of endless summer. Not being a botanist, and aware that some of the most tempting fruits held latent poison under an alluring exterior, I was most chary of eating fruit unknown to me, and never touched any until quite satisfied of its wholesomeness from its effects on the Indians; nor, mindful of the fact that the Indian will, and apparently can, eat anything, would I venture to eat many fruits the Indians partook of as a matter of course. Sweet and ripened fruit is rarely eaten by them; they prefer a bitter taste, and, as mentioned in connection with sugar-cane, have no particular use for anything sweet. The Indian will gather fruit and bring it to the house, though the usual custom is to pluck and eat it in the bush. So far as I was concerned especially, it was brought in as a present to denote good-will.
One fruit the Indians grow in the plantations resembles and tastes like grapes.[191] It is very plentiful, particularly in the old plantations, and the Indian will often return to one of these in order to obtain this fruit. Another fruit, also found growing in old plantations, is the colour of a lemon, and the size and shape of an orange. It is very good eating, extremely sweet when ripe, with huge black pips, and the part immediately under the skin is gummy, like rubber latex, and sticks to the mouth.
A fruit we knew as the mauve berry is found at the top of trees. In size it approximates to a red currant, and it grows in large bunches. The colour is a light pinky mauve. It is intensely sweet, and according to popular report has an intoxicating effect upon the eater. It certainly appears to have very heady properties.
Various palms furnish palatable fruits. There is a small edible palm from which the Indians strip the bark after they have cut it down, and remove the cylinder of hardened sap which is of the same consistency as a hard woody apple. It is heavy but rich-flavoured and good eating. Then there is the cabbage palm, not to mention the pupunha.