Passaic City record., 1892-08-06
A POISON WEED AS FOOD.
MANDIOCA rs 'THE STAFF OF
LIFE' IN BRAZIL.


LIFE IN BRAZIL.
BY 1t the People Live-How 1t is Pre-
pared and the Different Articles
of Export Made From 1t.
N Brazil, writes Fannie B. Ward in
the Washington Star, mandioca is
as much in use as wheat and corn in
& the United States, and after all that
may be said about coffee, cotton, sugar,
Indian rubber, gold and diamonds it is
the most important production, for by it
the people live. Not only is it a very
valuable article of export-in the shape
of tapioca, arrowroot and farina-but it
is staple article of food, as jndespensi-
bic to the average Brazilian as potatoes
to the Irishman, beef to the Englishman
or frejoles to the Mexican. It is found
upon every Brazilian table in some form
or other at every meal, not only in va
rious wholesome and palatable dishes,
but it figures largely in greasy, gariicy
soups and in the everlasting ola podrida
of carne SEGA dried meat) sliced together
with lard, beans, yams, seeds and good
ness knows what. In the form OF
course flour a majority of the popu-
lation use it the year around in
lieu of bread. Made into thick
purrldge it is eaten at all times. Babies
are weaned on it. 1t is the sole diet of
invalids in Brazilian hospitals. A mild
intoxicant is distilled from 1T which is
the universal drink of the lower classes,
and it appears in no end of strange cul-
mary messes, whose other ingredients
are an unguessable conundrum. The
plant which IS indigenous to Brazil, has
various local names, mandioca being the
most common and jatropha manihot its
scientific appellation. 1t is also called
yucca, cassava, maniac and mandiac, and
was eaten by the Indians centuries before
the discovery of this hemisphere by
Europeans. The wonder is that those
untutored savages learned its nutritious
uses, because in its natural state it is
deadly poison, containing SO much hydro
cyanic acid that thirty drops of the clear
Juice will kill man in six minutes. The
art of rendering 1t innoxious and fit for
food was, next to the potato, the most
valuable gift of the aboriginal South
American to the civilized world, and one
which reflects no small credit on the
donors, because had it not been accom-
panied by information on its culture and
conversion into the ssstaff of life" fhe
result of their own primitive expert
ments) no attention would ever have
been paid to the poison weed.
A cultivated field of this queer shrub
looks like a nursery of young peach
trees. The plants grow about five feet
high, the stem OF each being isolated,
with few long pointed leaves at the
top, and bud or projecting nucleus of
sprout occurring at nearly every inch
of the otherwise naked stem. Dig down
bit and you will find cluster of ir-
regular-shaped tubers resembling very
large, long parsnips, five or six to the
plant, weighing all together twenty five
or thirty pounds. The roots only are
+. eaten. When field has been reaped
the stems are chopped into pieces about
four inches long, and these are planted.
They quickly take root, sending forth
shoots from the buds, and in two years
y mature new crop
The Indian mode for preparing the
roots for food, in vogue nobody knows
how many centuries before the first
Spaniard or Portuguese came to the
country, has never been much improved
upon, though modern machinery has
somewhat shortened the process. With
shell, or a rude rasp mode by setting a
small, sharp stone into bit of bark,
the roots were scraped into fine pulp.
The pulp was then rubbed between stones
until all the poisonous juice was squeezed
out and the remaining moisture evapor-
ated by exposure to the fire or to the hot
sun. During the drying it is stirred or
broken into coarse grains, and this is
farina or mandioca flour, the bread of
the rur,l Brazilian. The savages of the
interior eat the dry -four, tossing it into
the mouth with the fingers so deftly that
not grain is lost. Travellers say that
white men have often tried to perform
the same feat, but always powder their
!, clothes and faces, to the infinite amuse-
ment of the Indians. The Portuguese
soon invented mills for preparing man
dioca, not unlike Yankee cider presses.
With them the modus operandi is first to
wash the roots and remove the rind, and
then to hold the pieces In the hand in
contact with circular crater revolved by
water power. The pulverizing material
is placed in sacks, several of which
thus filled are subject to the action of
screw press for the expulsion of the
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