All Gallica |
Books |
Manuscripts |
Maps |
Images |
Periodicals |
Sound recordings |
Scores |
Full record
Titre : Annual report of the Bureau of American ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian institution
Auteur : Bureau of American ethnology (Washington, D.C.)
Éditeur : Government printing office (Washington)
Date d'édition : 1895-1964
Contributeur : Powell, John Wesley (1834-1902). Directeur de publication
Type : texte,publication en série imprimée
Langue : Anglais
Format : application/pdf
Identifiant : ark:/12148/cb37575968z/date
Identifiant : ISSN 0097269X
Source : Bibliothèque nationale de France
Relation : http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb37575968z
Description : Périodicité : Annuel
Description : Etat de collection : n. 1 (1879)-n. 48 (1931)
Provenance : bnf.fr
Date de mise en ligne : 12/01/2009
1903 (N25)-1904. Note : Index.
Page
(Screen 82 / 588)
Order a reproduction
To order an image part of a document, please select the desired page, and click "Order a reproduction". In this mode, the images can be requested only one by one. To request a large amount of images or for any other request, please contact us
ce formulaire
Send by e-mail
Search module
Search results
Search this document
Rechercher dans ce périodique
The text below has been produced using a process called optical character recognition (O.C.R.). Since it is an automatic process, it is subject to errors you might find in this page.
The recognition rate for this document is 96,35 %.
52 THE ABORIGINES 0F PORTO RICO [ETH.AKx.25
West Indies employed practically the same method as that now used
by the kindred people of Venezuela and Guiana.
The details of cassava manufacture vary somewhat among those
Indians who now use the root, but all seem to adopt a similar method
of extracting the poisonous juice. Good descriptions of the process
adopted by the Orinoco races are given in Gilii," but perhaps the most
complete account, with illustrations, is by im Thurn,b as follows:
One woman, squatting on her hams, and armed with a big knife, peels off the skin
of the cassava roots, which lie in a heap at her side. Each root, after being peeled,
is washed and then thrown on to a new heap. A little way off another woman stands,
and, grasping one of the peeled roots with both hands, scrapes it up and down an
oblong board or grater studded with small fragments of stone and so roughened like
a nutmeg grater. One end of the grater stands in a trough on the ground, the other
rests against the woman'a knees. It is violent exercise.
As the woman scrapes, her body swings down and up again from her hips. The
rhythmic "swish caused bythe scraping of the juicyroot is the chief sound in the
house, for the labor is too heavy to permit of talking. The cassava, which slips as
pulp from the scraper into the trough, is collected and put into a long wicker-woven
matapie, which hangs from the roof. This ma<np;'g, or cassava squaezer, is in principle
exactly like the not uncommon toy known as a Siamese link. It is a cylinder, 7 or
8 feet long and 5 or 6 inches in diameter, made of closely woven strips of pliant bark.
The upper end is open and has a hoop by whieh the matapie may be suspended from
one of thé beams of the house; the lower end is closed, but it also has a hoop, the
use of whieh will presently appear.
The cassava, saturated with its highly poisonous juice, is now forced into the
ma~M'< through the loop at the bottom of this a heavy pole is passed, one end of
whieh is allowed to rest on the ground and is there fastened by means of a heavy
stone or some other device, while the other is raised in the air. A woman now sits
on the raised end of the pole and her weight stretches the matapie downwards. In
proportion as the length of the cylinder increases its diameter is of course reduced.
The pressure thus applied to the cassava pulp immediately forces the poisonous juice
out through the walls of the matapie.
The juice drops down into a buck-pot which stands on the ground; and it is this
which, when it is afterward boiled, becomes cassareep, a thick treacle-like liquid,
which is no longer poisonous. The cassava, now dry and free from juice,
is taken from the matapie, broken into a sieve, and sifted, so that it beccmes a
coarse flour. This is either wrapped in leaves and put away for future use or is at
once made into bread.
A Jarge circular griddle, or plate, of European manufacture, is now placed over
the fire or, by some of the remote Indians, a fiat slab of stone is used for this pur-
pose, and there can be little doubt that this stone was originally universally used.
On the griddle, whatever its material, a thin layer of the meal is spread. A woman,
fan in hand, sits by the fire watching. With her fan she smooths the upper surface
of the cake and makes .its edges round. In a very few minutes one side of the large,
round, white cake is done; and, when it bas been turned, in yet a couple of minutes
the bread is ready. When a sumcient number of these oatcake-like pieces of bread
have been made, thevare taken out of the house and thrown upon the roof to dry in
the sun. When thoroughly sun dried the bread is hard and crisp, with
a flavor like that of freshly gathered nuts. In this state, if guarded from damp, it
will keep for an indefinite time.
a F. S. GiHi, Saggio di Storia Americana, Rome, 1782.
b Among the Indians of Guiana, London, 1883. °
Share
Add to your collection
