The proprietor was kind enough first to offer us some strong coffee,
without milk (a customary mark of attention in the Brazils), and
then to conduct us over his plantation.
The manioc plant shoots out stalks from four to six feet in height,
with a number of large leaves at their upper extremities. The
valuable portion of the plant is its bulbous root, which often
weighs two or three pounds, and supplies the place of corn all
through the Brazils. It is washed, peeled, and held against the
rough edge of a millstone, turned by a negro, until it is completely
ground away. The whole mass is then gathered into a basket,
plentifully steeped in water, and is afterwards pressed quite dry by
means of a press. Lastly it is scattered upon large iron plates,
and slowly dried by a gentle fire kept up beneath. It now resembles
a very coarse kind of flour; and is eaten in two ways--wet and dry.
In the first case, it is mixed with hot water until it forms a kind
of porridge; in the second, it is handed round, under the form of
coarse flour, in little baskets, and every one at table takes as
much as he chooses, and sprinkles it over his plate.
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