The Forest Exiles: The Perils of a Peruvian Family in the Wilds of the Amazon

by Mayne Reid

  CHAPTER TWENTY.

  THE MILK-TREE.

  Guapo kept his promise with the tapir, and on that very same day.Shortly after the macaws had been brought in, little Leona, who had beenstraying down by the water's edge, came running back to the house, andin breathless haste cried out, "Mamma, mamma! what a big hog!"

  "Where, my pet?" inquired her mother, with a degree of anxiety, for shefancied that the child might have seen some fierce beast of prey insteadof a hog.

  "In the water," replied Leona; "among the great lilies."

  "It's the tapir," cried Leon. "Carrambo! it's our tapir!"

  Guapo was busy plucking his macaws, but at the word tapir he sprang tohis feet, making the feathers fly in all directions.

  "Where, senorita?" he asked, addressing little Leona.

  "Down below," replied the child; "near the edge of the river."

  Guapo seized his gravatana, and crouched down towards the bank, withLeon at his heels. On nearing the water, he stopped; and, with his bodyhalf bent, looked down stream. There, sure enough, was the huge brownbeast standing with his body half out of the water, and pulling up theroots of the flags with his great teeth and long moveable snout. It wasnot likely he would return to his former den after the chase he had had;and fancying, no doubt, that all the danger lay upon the opposite shore,he had come to this side to browse awhile.

  Guapo cautioned Leon to remain where he was, while he himself, almostcrawling upon his belly, proceeded along the bank. In a few minutes hewas out of sight, and Leon, seeing nothing more of him, kept his eyessharply fixed upon the tapir.

  The latter remained quietly feeding for about ten minutes, when the boysaw him give a little start. Perhaps, thought he, he has heard Guapoamong the weeds--for the tapir has good ears--and that was what causedhim to make the motion. The tapir stopped feeding for a moment, butthen recommenced, though evidently not with as much eagerness as before.Presently he stopped a second time, and seemed undetermined as towhether he should not turn and take to the clear water. In this way hehesitated for several minutes; then, to the astonishment of Leon, hisbody began to rock from side to side, and the next moment, with aplunge, he fell heavily backward, making the waves undulate on all sidesof him. The arrow had done its work--he was dead!

  A loud shout from Guapo echoed along the river, and the Indian was seenplunging forward to the dead tapir, which the next moment he had seizedby the leg, and was dragging towards the bank. He was here met by thewhole party, all of whom were anxious to see this rare and singularcreature. Ropes were soon attached to the legs, and Guapo, assisted byDon Pablo and Leon, drew the huge carcass out upon the shore; anddragged it up to the house.

  Guapo at once skinned it, carefully preserving the hide to made solesfor his sandals and other purposes; and that night all of them tried a"tapir-steak" for supper. All, however, Guapo alone excepted, preferredthe flesh of the purple macaws, which, cooked as they were with onionsand red pepper, were excellent eating, particularly for Spanish-Americanpalates. Guapo had all the tapir to himself.

  The bamboo palm-house was now quite finished, and several articles offurniture too--for during the nights both Don Pablo and his trusty manGuapo had worked at many things. You will, no doubt, be asking wherethey procured lights,--will you not? I shall tell you. One of theloftiest and most beautiful of the palm-trees--_the wax-palm (CeroxylonAndicola_)--grew in these very parts, for the lower slopes of the Andesare its favourite habitat. Out of its trunk exudes wax, which has onlyto be scraped off and made into candles, that burn as well as those madeof the wax of bees. Indeed, the missionaries, in their variousreligious ceremonies,--or "mummeries," as they might be better styled,--have always 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 admixtureof resin--collects upon the under-side of the leaves, and can he had inlarge quantities by merely stripping it off. But even, had neither ofthese palms been found, they needed not to have gone without lights, forthe fruits of the "patawa," already described, when submitted topressure, yield a pure liquid oil, without any disagreeable smell, andmost excellent for burning in lamps. So, you see, there was no lack oflight in the cheerful cottage.

  But there were two things, you will say, still wanting--one of them anecessary article, and the other almost so--and which could not possiblybe 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, anda tree so singular and celebrated, that you have no doubt heard of itbefore now. It was the _palo de vaca_, or "cow-tree," called sometimesby an equally appropriate name _arbol del leche_, or "milk-tree." It isone of the noblest trees of the forest, rising, with its tall straightstem, to a great height, and adorned with large oblong pointed leaves,some of which are nearly a foot in length. It carries fruit which iseatable, 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 neithermore nor less than milk of a thick creamy kind, and most agreeable inflavour. Indeed, there are many persons who prefer it to the milk ofcows, and it has been proved to be equally nutritious, the peoplefattening upon it in districts where it grows. It is collected, as thesugar-water is from the maple, simply by making a notch or incision inthe bark, and placing a vessel underneath, into which the sap runsabundantly. It runs most freely at the hour of sunrise; and this isalso true as regards the sap of the sugar-tree, and many other trees ofthat kind. Sometimes it is drunk pure as it flows from the tree; butthere are some people who, not relishing it in its thick gummy state,dilute it with water, and strain it before using it. It is excellentfor tea or coffee, quite equal to the best cream, and of a richercolour. When left to stand in an open vessel, a thick coagulum forms onthe top, which the natives term cheese, and which they eat in a similarmanner, and with, equal relish. Another virtue of this extraordinarytree is that the cream, without any preparation, makes a glue for allpurposes as good as that used by cabinet-makers, and, indeed, Don Pabloand Guapo had already availed themselves of it in this way.

  So much for the _palo de vaca_.

  It still remains for me to tell you where the _salt_ came from; andalthough the milk-tree was ever so welcome, yet the salt was a thing ofstill greater necessity. Indeed, the latter might be looked upon as anindispensable article in household economy. You, my young reader, knownot what it is to be without salt. With whole sacks of this beautifulmineral within your reach, almost as cheap as sand, you cannot fancy thelonging--the absolute craving--for it, which they feel who are for aperiod deprived of it. Even the wild animals will make long journeys insearch of those salt-springs--or, as they are called, "licks"--whichexist in many places in the wilderness of America. For salt, Don Pabloand 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 speciesgrew 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 amongmany of the Indian tribes the fruit of a certain species of palm wasmanufactured into salt; and he knew the palm, too, if he could only gethis eyes upon it. Seeing his master and the rest so troubled upon thishead, Guapo rose one morning early and stole off among the groves ofpalm, on the other side of the river. There, in a marshy place, withits roots even growing in the water, stood the very tree,--a small palmof about four inches in diameter and twenty to thirty feet high. It wasthicker at the base than the top, and the top itself ro
se several feetabove 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. Eachone was as large as a peach, of an oval shape, slightly flattened, andof a yellowish green colour. They grew in large clusters among thebases 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 breakingoff the spadices, and flinging them to the ground. He had sooncollected a bag-full, with which he hurried back to the house.

  All wondered what Guapo meant to do with these fruits, for they tastedthem and found them very bitter. Guapo soon showed them his intention.Having prepared a sort of furnace, he set the nuts on fire; and whenthey were thoroughly reduced to ashes, to the great joy and astonishmentof all, these ashes, which were as white as flour, had the taste ofsalt! It is true it was not equal to "Turk's Island," nor yet to "Bay"salt, but it proved to be good enough for cooking purposes, andsatisfied the craving which all had felt for this indispensable article.