SUBSTITUTE
FOR
SALT.
365
the solanEæ, the compositæ, the malvaceæ, the drymyrhizeæ?, and, which is still more surprising, even in the palm-trees. In the hut o f the Indian w h o had b e e n so dangerously bitten b y the viper, we f o u n d balls t w o o r three inches in diameter, o f an earthy and impure salt called chici, which is prepared with great care by the natives. A t M a y p u r e s a conferva is burnt, which is left by the O r i n o c o on the neighbouring rocks, when, after high swellings, it again enters its b e d . A t Javita a salt is fabricated by the incineration o f This the spadix and fruit o f the palm-tree seje o r chimu. fine palm-tree, which abounds on the banks o f the A u v a n a , near the cataract of Guarinumo, and between Javita and the Caño Pimichin, appears to be a new species o f c o c o a tree. I t may be recollected, that the fluid contained in the fruit o f the c o m m o n cocoa-tree is often saline, even when the tree g r o w s far from the sea shore. A t Madagascar salt is extracted from the sap o f a palm-tree called viro. Besides the spadix and the fruit o f the seje palm, the Indians o f Javita lixiviate also the ashes o f the famous liana called CUPANA, which is a new species o f the genus paullinia, consequently a very different plant from the c u pania o f Linnæus. I may here mention, that a missionary seldom travels without being provided with some prepared seeds of the cupana. This preparation requires great care. T h e Indians scrape the seeds, mix them with flour o f cassava, envelope the mass in plantain leaves, and set it to ferment in water, till it acquires a saffron-yellow c o l o u r . This yellow paste dried in the sun. and diluted in water, is taken in the morning as a kind o f tea. T h e beverage is bitter and stomachic, but it appeared to me to have a very disagreeable taste. On the banks o f the N i g e r , and in a great part o f the interior o f A frica, where salt is extremely rare, it is said o f a rich man, " h e is so fortunate as to eat salt at his m e a l s . " T h i s g o o d fortune is not t o o c o m m o n in the interior o f Guinna. The whites only, particularly the soldiers o f the little fort o f San Carlos, know how to procure pure salt, either from the coast o f Caracas, o r from C h i t a * b y t h e Rio * North of Morocote, at the eastern declivity of the Cordillera of New Grenada. The salt of the coasts, which the Indians call yuquira, costs two piastres the almuda at San Carlos.