_CASSAVA CAKES AND BLOW-PIPES_
In the morning I expected to start out, but learned that the cassava
cakes must be made. The women had started the process the night
before. But after that I frequently saw it made and the process is
interesting.
Cassava is a root, something like a large turnip, yet longer and more
in the shape of an immense sweet potato. The inside is quite white and
somewhat soft, a trifle "woody," like a turnip that we would throw
away. These roots grow wild. There is no cultivating necessary,
although in some localities they cut away the other vegetation and
allow the cassava plants to thrive a little better.
A grater is made by driving sharp bits of flint into a board. This is
covered with a sort of wax which hardens and leaves only the sharp
tips of the flints sticking out. The women peel the cassava roots
with dull knives or sharp flints. The root is then grated over this
flint grater and the fine particles fall down into a woven frame.
Next comes the "metapee." This is a most peculiar basket, made solely
for the manufacture of cassava flour. It may be pulled out long or
pushed in short. It works something like an old-fashioned "accordion"
hat rack. When pushed down short it is very large around but as it is
pulled out it grows smaller and smaller in circumference. It is a
great trick to weave these metapee baskets, for they must be
exceedingly strong.
The grated cassava is put in the metapee when it is squat down short
and large around. One end of this basket is hung from a pole or limb.
In the bottom of the metapee is a loop through which a pole is run.
One end of the pole is lashed to the ground, at the foot of a tree.
The woman now sits on the other end of the pole. This makes a lever
and her weight stretches the metapee out into a long wicker cylinder.
This squeezes all of the moisture out of the ground cassava root. And
here is a most remarkable thing--that juice is a deadly poison! Yet
the pulp that remains makes a nourishing bread.
[Illustration: AT FOURTEEN AN INDIAN GIRL MUST BE ABLE TO COOK
CASSAVA]
[Illustration: A PRIMITIVE SUGAR CANE PRESS]
The woman bounces up and down on her end of the pole until every bit
of the juice is out. This juice is saved, as the poison can be used by
the men. Or the juice may be allowed to evaporate and what remains of
that, instead of being poison, is good seasoning for food!
The pulp is spread in the sun to dry. When dry it is sifted through a
basket sieve and becomes rather coarse flour. To this water is added,
the dough is kneaded with the fists much as our women knead wheat
flour and water into dough. This dough is flattened out into cakes
three feet in diameter and half an inch thick and baked on a flat
slab, a sheet of iron if it be possible to get it, or on anything
handy. The bread is now ready to eat. It is firm, fairly hard, rather
crisp and has but little flavor. To me it tasted like refined sawdust.
But it is extremely nourishing.
It takes half an hour to cook these cassava cakes and, kept dry, they
will last a great while. That is why the women baked a number of them
to take with them upon the impending journey. It was comforting to
have this much certain about the uncertain journey which we were now
to take.
While the Indian women busied themselves making cassava cakes for the
journey back to our camp I studied all of the weapons of the men in
the village, for they interested me. There were but two guns in the
village, owned by the chief and another very "wealthy" native. These
were the muzzle-loading "lead" guns.
What interested me most of all was the blowpipe. It is really a
wonderful weapon. It is a wonder to me that we boys back home did not
make similar weapons. I am sure that with a little skill we could have
picked off rabbits, squirrels and game birds, although, of course, we
would have had to become good woodsmen. Of all the weapons to be
faced, I believe the blowpipe as made and used by these Indians is the
most deadly. I would rather face almost anything else.
These pipes are from eight to twelve feet long. They are made of two
strong reeds, a hollow-stemmed variety that grows in the jungle. They
take the midribs of a great palm leaf, dry them, split them up, char
one end in the fire to make it hard, and with this force out the
little partitions that appear at the joints in all reeds, as in
bamboo. Then a smaller reed is found that will just slide inside the
larger one. They now have a double reed which makes an extremely long
yet strong tube. The hole is made through the inner reed in the same
manner, and these palm midribs and fine sand are worked inside the
inner tube until it is quite as smooth as a rifle bore.
The arrows are made from the same palm midribs, split as fine as an
eighth of an inch in thickness. While at work mining I hired an Indian
boy to make a collection of bird skins for me. These boys can skin a
bird perfectly and prepare the skin so that it will be like soft, thin
kid, without misplacing a feather. I watched this boy make blowpipes
and arrows. He dried the palm midribs in the sun a few days and they
split readily into as fine arrows as he needed.
Just how he made the deadly poison with which he tipped them I was not
certain. I will admit that we kept clear of that poison just as you
would keep clear of dynamite. I know that it was made from crushed
leaves and roots and put in a gourd. This poison is called "waurali."
As soon as the poison is dried on, in the sun, a string is woven in
and out around each end of each arrow until there is a long row of
them, and this is rolled around a stick so that there is a solid roll
of these arrows, which may be pulled out one by one.
The quiver is made of woven grass, the bottom made of some wax that
hardens from trees. This roll of arrows is placed, poison tips up, in
the quiver and a skin top put over them to keep out moisture. Attached
to the quiver is a small basket containing loose cotton.
When the boy was ready to shoot a bird he would remove one of the
arrows, pinch off a bit of cotton from the basket and wrap it loosely
around the blunt end. Thrusting the arrow into the tube this cotton
made it fit just enough to take the compression of air. Sighting the
bird, the boy placed the blowpipe to his lips, aimed at the bird and
gave a sudden sharp puff.
The speed of that slender arrow was marvelous. Seldom did the boy
miss. If the bird was merely scratched, it would fly but a short
distance before the deadly poison would get in its work and then it
would come fluttering to the ground, quite dead by the time the boy,
running after it, would pick it up. Sometimes the great tapirs, as
large as a hog, would be killed by these slender arrows.
Their bows and arrows interested me. Their bows are longer than most
of those used by the American Indians, being six feet or more. And
these men are generally smaller than the American Indians. They have
many kinds of arrows for the various game, and they also use a sort of
harpoon, a large barbed spearhead on the arrow with a long stout woven
cord fastened to it. This is for shooting fish.
One day an Indian took the fruit of a star apple tree, wove a loose
covering for it, hung it in a pool of water at the shore of the river
from a limb overhead and waited. I saw a great fish dart for this bait
and at the same time "Zowie!" went this harpoon arrow.
There was a great thrashing about in the water, but the Indian calmly
hauled in his harpoon and there was a big pacu on it, a very tasty
fish when properly cooked. They also use hand spears with a half dozen
barbed points branching out and get many fish in that manner.