Untitled - The Alfred Russel Wallace Website

82 NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP.
projecting roof of the house, or anywhere in the
a wheel with one hand as he
shade, turning ;
turns he gaily sings, or now and then munches at
a truncheon of inguire (boiled green plantain) he
holds in his other hand. An upright piece attached
to the frame of the wheel carries one or several
spindles, and from each spindle a woman spins
away in a right line, all she has to do being to draw
out the cotton (which she carries in little rolls in
her girdle) to a uniform thickness. Here and there
forked sticks, 6 or 7 feet long, are stuck up, over
which the lengthening thread is passed, so that
pigs and other animals running about may not get
entangled in it. The work of spinning begins at
daybreak, and as the morning mist rolls away
hundreds of spinners are to be seen on the pampa
each crowned with her gay montera drawing
out their long gossamer lines. As the sun rises
higher, and even the broad montera cannot wholly
shade the spinner's face from the intense heat of his
rays, the task is laid aside, to be resumed towards
evening, and sometimes, when there is a bright
moon, continued till a late hour.
Cotton-spinning is the principal industry
women of Tarapoto. The thread is remarkably
and
of the
the men into a coarse cloth
strong, and is woven by
called " tocuyo," which used formerly to be much
exported to Brazil ; but latterly English and
"
American unbleached cottons (called
Inglez") have come hither so cheap
native manufacture has greatly fallen off.
tocuyo
that the