. t seeing that we looked at them in afriendly manner, they returned to their employ-ment. One old woman, and several young ones,took the coarsely ground and boiled flour out ofthe pot with their hands, chewed it, and then putit in the pot again. By this mode of treatment,the decoction begins to ferment, and becomes in-toxicating. * While we were looking at these not very invitingoperations, one of us saw a small serpent creep out * It is remarkable that this mode of preparing a fermentedliquor out of maize, mandiocca flour or banana
. t seeing that we looked at them in afriendly manner, they returned to their employ-ment. One old woman, and several young ones,took the coarsely ground and boiled flour out ofthe pot with their hands, chewed it, and then putit in the pot again. By this mode of treatment,the decoction begins to ferment, and becomes in-toxicating. * While we were looking at these not very invitingoperations, one of us saw a small serpent creep out * It is remarkable that this mode of preparing a fermentedliquor out of maize, mandiocca flour or bananas, is foundamong the various Indian tribes of America, and seems pe-culiar to this race. Wafer found it among the Indians on theisthmus of Darien. (Voy. de Dampier. Arast. 1705, p. 228.)They there call this beverage Chichach-capah; in Potosi, wherethe Benedictine monk, George Ruiz of Augsburg, according tothe manuscript accounts sent to his convent, also found it,Chicha. The same custom likewise prevails in Cayenne, Su-rinam, and on the coast of the i TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 283 of the ground, which, on account of the thicknessof its tail, is here called the two-headed de dims cabegas (Ccpcilia annulata^ nob.). *The Indians dread it as venomous, and fled, terri-fied at the naturalist, who had seized it by thehead, and playing with it, carried it towards could have inspired the simple peoplewith greater respect for us; from this time theylooked upon us with the same awe as they feel fortheir Pajes (their magicians, priests, and physi-cians) ; a feeling which we readily maintainedamong them. Towards evening, we heard the sound of theox-horn echo in the woods. Our guests graduallyslipped in at the back door, quite softly; and in ashort time, the barn, into which the liquor hadbeen brought, was filled with a great number ofIndians. By degrees, those residing at a greaterdistance arrived in single troops, each with hisAvhole family, and with bag and b
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