r necessity. Indeed, the latter might be looked upon as an
indispensable article in household economy. You, my young reader, know
not what it is to be without salt. With whole sacks of this beautiful
mineral within your reach, almost as cheap as sand, you cannot fancy the
longing--the absolute craving--for it, which they feel who are for a
period deprived of it.

Even the wild animals will make long journeys in search of those
salt-springs--or, as they are called, "licks"--which exist in many
places in the wilderness of America. For salt, Don Pablo and his
companions would have exchanged anything they had,--their sugar,
plantains, cocoa, coffee, or even the cassava, which was their bread.
They longed for salt, and knew not how they could get on without it. The
only substitute was the "aji," or capsicum, of which several species
grew around, and almost every dish they ate was strongly spiced with it.
But still this was not salt, and they were not contented with it.

It was now that they found a friend in Guapo. Guapo knew that among many
of the Indian tribes the fruit of a certain species of palm was
manufactured into salt; and he knew the palm, too, if he could only get
his eyes upon it. Seeing his master and the rest so troubled upon this
head, Guapo rose one morning early and stole off among the groves of
palm, on the other side of the river. There, in a marshy place, with its
roots even growing in the water, stood the very tree,--a small palm of
about four inches in diameter and twenty to thirty feet high. It was
thicker at the base than the top, and the top itself rose several feet
above the tuft of pinnate, feathery fronds, ending in a pointed spike.
It was the "jara" palm, of the genus _Leopoldinia_.

It was the fruits upon which Guapo bent his eyes with earnestness. Each
one was as large as a peach, of an oval shape, slightly flattened, and
of a yellowish green colour. They grew in large clusters among the bases
of the leaves; and Guapo was not long in ascending several trees--for
the jara is a smooth-skinned palm, and can be climbed--and breaking off
the spadices, and flinging them to the ground. He had soon collected a
bag-full, with which he hurried back to the house.

All wondered what Guapo meant to do with these fruits, for they tasted
them and found them very bitter. Guapo soon showed them his intention.
Having prepared a sort of furnace, he set the nuts on fire; and when
they were thoroughly reduced to