MAKING PARA RUBBER IN THE FOREST
After breakfast, the seringueiro sets about transforming the morning’s
“milk” into solid rubber--in technical language, he submits the liquid
to a treatment whereby it is coagulated.
He makes up a big fire with palm-nuts, which burn splendidly, as they
are very rich in oil, and which give off a thick smoke. It is with this
smoke that he is going to dry and cure his rubber, and as he wants it
to be very dense and heavily laden with the essence of the fuel, over
the fire he puts a funnel, which acts as a chimney, and draws up the
smoke in a compressed cloud.
He now takes a paddle-shaped piece of wood, and dips the blade into
the rubber milk. Then he holds the paddle over the funnel, revolving
the blade in the smoke until the covering of rubber is thoroughly dry.
Again he dips the blade into the new “milk,” and again holds it in
the smoke until the sticky liquid solidifies as a coating round the
foundation layer of rubber. Again and again he plunges the paddle into
the “milk” and holds it in the smoke, until he has a large ball of
rubber made up of layer upon layer of the material. This is cut through
and the paddle removed; the rubber is then ready to go to market, and
will perform the first stage of its journey thither on Saturday, when
it is taken by the seringueiro to the manager’s store.
Extra large balls of rubber, or “pelles,” are made in a very similar
way on poles. But instead of the poles being held by hand over the
smoke, they are balanced on a roughly-made rest. A couple of pronged
sticks are driven into the ground to serve as props for a horizontal
bar. In the middle of this bar, which is just another bit of timber,
is a noose of bush-rope. The pelle is made on the middle part of a
separate pole. One end of this pole is slipped through the noose until
the coating of rubber in the centre is well over the smoke; the other
end is supported by hand, with or without the assistance of another
noose of bush-rope hanging from the roof. The seringueiro turns the
pole round and round, always keeping it in such a position that the
growing ball of rubber, which he frequently feeds with milk, is twirled
about in the smoke.
You are wondering, I expect, how the seringueiros get paid. They are
all run by men of capital, called “aviadores.” The aviador lives at one
of the commercial centres of the Amazon rubber industry, such as Para
or Manaos in Brazil. His business is to arrange for labourers to go up
into the rubber districts, to supply them with anything and everything
they want in the way of stores and outfit, and, if necessary, to
advance them the money for their journey. His busiest time is in the
early part of the year, because all new hands start off for the forests
about March or April. They can then reach the scene of their labours
towards the middle of May, when the rubber-gathering season begins.
All the labourers start off in debt to some aviador. When they reach
the seringal which is their particular destination, the manager there
instals them in one of the huts, and tells them which estrada or
estradas they are to work. Often one man is given two estradas, which
are to be worked on alternate days, so that the trees can have a little
longer rest between milking-times.
The first job everyone has to do is to lend a hand in clearing the
estradas--and very hard work this is. Although the paths are old
cuttings, they are blocked with a tangle of undergrowth. They have not
been used since last December, when the Amazon, as usual, began its big
annual rise, and overflowed its banks with a far-reaching volume of
water. Since then the forests have been impassable, therefore work has
been impossible until this month of May, when the lands are once more
uncovered; meanwhile, tropical vegetation has sprung up and run riot
along the paths.
When the estradas have been re-cleared--also some new ones may be
cut, if sufficient labourers have come up to make further development
possible--tapping begins. You have seen how the seringueiro gets
the rubber and prepares it for market. When he delivers his week’s
collection to the manager, the weight thereof is put to his credit,
and his pelles are forwarded to the aviador who has sent him up to the
seringal. The aviador sells them, and remits to the seringueiro the
amount they fetch, less commission and something on account of his
debt. All the rubber-gatherers take part of their dues in stores, as
the aviador is general provider to the seringal.
You want to know what the seringueiros do when the flood season sets
in? Some of them go away to look for work in more civilized parts of
the country. But many of them are several weeks’ journey away from
any town, or from any part of the country where farming is possible.
It would not be worth their while to go so far away and spend a lot of
money on looking for work of a different kind, when the chances are so
much on the side of their being compelled to return to rubber-gathering
as the only means of earning a living. So they stop up in the flooded
forests, living in the shanties which are perched on the highest
stilts. They get through the long time from December to May as best
they can, doing a great deal of smoking, sleeping, and idle gossiping.
Sometimes they drink too much, and sometimes they fight--you expected
as much? Well, although you have only had a peep at the kind of life
these men lead, I am sure you have seen enough to make you slow to
judge them harshly.