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4?8 NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP.
on one side (rudely figured at a], into which fire is
put, and another at the opposite (as at b], which
serves as a flue. Of the articles laid on the budari,
c is the brush of piassaba tied tightly round at
midway, which serves for sweeping
the oven before
the cassava cake or farinha is spread out to bake ;
d is the palm-leaf fan for blowing the fire ; and my
Indians would have it that d' was another fan, but
the hook .at one corner (which, whenever it occurs
in these figures, indicates a bit of liana-rope by which
the utensil is hung up) renders it probable that
else was meant e is a stage (or shelf)
something ;
such as may be seen of various sizes hung from the
roof of an Indian's hut, but especially over the oven
and hearth, the smoke from which acts as an antiseptic
to the dried fish and other viands kept on the
stages, and also partially keeps off the cockroaches ;
f is either the mandiocca-grater or, more probably,
a flat piece of board, sometimes with a hole to
insert the fingers, which is used to raise the edges
of the cassava cake and to aid in turning it over.
All these articles are in use to this day throughout
a vast extent of country on the Orinoco and Casi-
quiari. Even in the Andes, a triangular or square
fan, plaited by the Indians of the leaves of maize or
wild cane, is the only bellows used by the Quitonian
housewife.
The figures marked B (Fig. 17) were declared
by my Indians to be dolphins, whereof two species
abound in the Amazon and Orinoco.
C they said was plainly the same sort of thing
as the big papers (maps) I was continually poring
over. For a is the town often consisting of a
single annular house, with a road from it leading