made large use of these palm-candles. Another "wax-palm,"
called "Carnauba" (_Copernicia cerifera_), is found in South America.
In this one, the wax--of a pure white colour, and without any admixture
of resin--collects upon the under-side of the leaves, and can he had in
large quantities by merely stripping it off. But even, had neither of
these palms been found, they needed not to have gone without lights, for
the fruits of the "patawa," already described, when submitted to
pressure, yield a pure liquid oil, without any disagreeable smell, and
most excellent for burning in lamps. So, you see, there was no lack of
light in the cheerful cottage.

But there were two things, you will say, still wanting--one of them a
necessary article, and the other almost so--and which could not possibly
be procured in such a place. These two things were _salt_ and _milk_.
Now there was neither a salt-mine, nor a lake, nor a drop of salt water,
nor yet either cow, goat, or ass, within scores of miles of the place,
and still they had both salt and milk!

The milk they procured from a tree which grew in the woods close by, and
a tree so singular and celebrated, that you have no doubt heard of it
before now. It was the _palo de vaca_, or "cow-tree," called sometimes
by an equally appropriate name _arbol del leche_, or "milk-tree." It is
one of the noblest trees of the forest, rising, with its tall straight
stem, to a great height, and adorned with large oblong pointed leaves,
some of which are nearly a foot in length. It carries fruit which is
eatable, about the size of a peach, and containing one or two stones;
and the wood itself is valuable, being hard, fine-grained, and durable.
But it is the sap which gives celebrity to the tree. This is neither
more nor less than milk of a thick creamy kind, and most agreeable in
flavour. Indeed, there are many persons who prefer it to the milk of
cows, and it has been proved to be equally nutritious, the people
fattening upon it in districts where it grows. It is collected, as the
sugar-water is from the maple, simply by making a notch or incision in
the bark, and placing a vessel underneath, into which the sap runs
abundantly. It runs most freely at the hour of sunrise; and this is
also true as regards the sap of the sugar-tree, and many other trees of
that kind. Sometimes it is drunk pure as it flows from the tree; but
there are some people who, not relishing it in its thick gummy state,