the Portuguese.

A little distance from the house were the open sheds under which
the farinha for the use of the establishment was manufactured. In
the centre of each shed stood the shallow pans, made of clay and
built over ovens, where the meal is roasted. A long flexible
cylinder made of the peel of a marantaceous plant, plaited into
the proper form, hung suspended from a beam; it is in this that
the pulp of the mandioca is pressed, and from it the juice, which
is of a highly poisonous nature, although the pulp is wholesome
food, runs into pans placed beneath to receive it. A wooden
trough, such as is used in all these places for receiving the
pulp before the poisonous matter is extracted, stood on the
ground, and from the posts hung the long wicker-work baskets, or
aturas, in which the women carry the roots from the roca or
clearing; a broad ribbon made from the inner bark of the monguba
tree is attached to the rims of the baskets, and is passed round
the forehead of the carriers, to relieve their backs in
supporting the heavy load. Around the shed were planted a number
of banana and other fruit trees; among them were the never-
failing capsicum-pepper bushes, brilliant as holly-trees at
Christmas time with their fiery-red fruit, and lemon trees; the
one supplying the pungent, the other the acid, for sauce to the
perpetual meal of fish. There is never in such places any
appearance of careful cultivation-- no garden or orchard. The
useful trees are surrounded by weeds and bushes, and close behind
rises the everlasting forest.

There were other strangers under Senor Joaquim's roof besides
myself--mulattos, mamelucos, and Indian,--so we formed altogether