ever is
passed through the loop at the bottom. Its short end goes under a firm
notch, and then some one usually sits upon the long end until the pulp
is squeezed sufficiently dry. The bag is so formed that its extension,
by the force of the lever, causes its sides to close upon the pulp, and
thus press out the juice. The pulp is next dried in an oven, and
becomes the famous "cassava" or "farinha," which, throughout the greater
part of South America, is the only bread that is used. The juice of
course runs through the wickerwork of the _tipiti_ into a vessel below,
and there produces a sediment, which is the well-known "tapioca."

There are two kinds of the yucca or manioc-root,--the _yucca dulce_, and
_yucca amarga_--the sweet and bitter. One may be eaten raw without
danger. The other, which very closely resembles it, if eaten raw, would
produce almost instant death, as its juice is one of the deadliest of
vegetable poisons. Even while it is dripping from the _tipiti_ into the
vessel placed below, great care is always taken lest children or other
animals should drink of it.

There were no beds--such things are hardly to be found in any part of
tropical America--at least not in the low hot countries. To sleep in a
bed in these climates is far from being pleasant. The sleeper would be
at the mercy of a thousand crawling things,--insects and reptiles.
Hammocks, or "redes," as they are there called, take the place of
bedsteads; and five hammocks, of different dimensions, could be seen
about the new house. Some were strung up within, others in the porch in
front, for, in building his house, Don Pablo had fashioned it so that
the roof protruded in front, and formed a shaded verandah--a pleasant
place in which to enjoy the evenings. Guapo had made the hammocks,
having woven the cords out of the epidermis of the leaf of a noble palm,
called "tucum" (_Astrocaryum_).

Their home being now sufficiently comfortable, Don Pablo began to turn
his attention to the object for which he had settled on that spot. He
had already examined the cinchona-trees, and saw that they were of the
finest species. They were, in fact, the same which have since become
celebrated as producing the "Cuzconin," and known as "_Cascarilla de
Cuzco_" (Cuzco bark).

Of the Peruvian-bark trees there are many species,--between twenty and
thirty. Most of these are true cinchona-trees, but there are also many
kinds of the genus _Exostemma_, whose b