ragoso?" said Minha, seeing the active
barber making a rush at the bank.

"To look after the forest!" replied Fragoso.

"Useless, my friend," answered the smiling Minha. "Manoel has given me a
nosegay and I am quite content. It is true," she added, pointing to the
house hidden beneath the flowers, "that he has hidden our house in his
betrothal bouquet!"

CHAPTER IX. THE EVENING OF THE FIFTH OF JUNE

WHILE THE master's house was being constructed, Joam Garral was also
busied in the arrangement of the out-buildings, comprising the kitchen,
and offices in which provisions of all kinds were intended to be stored.

In the first place, there was an important stock of the roots of that
little tree, some six or ten feet in height, which yields the
manioc, and which form the principal food of the inhabitants of these
inter-tropical countries. The root, very much like a long black radish,
grows in clumps like potatoes. If it is not poisonous in Africa, it is
certain that in South America it contains a more noxious juice, which it
is necessary to previously get rid of by pressure. When this result is
obtained, the root is reduced to flour, and is then used in many ways,
even in the form of tapioca, according to the fancy of the natives.

On board the jangada there was a huge pile of this useful product
destined for general consumption.

As for preserved meats, not forgetting a whole flock of sheep, kept in
a special stable built in the front, they consisted principally of
a quantity of the _"presunto"_ hams of the district, which are of
first-class quality; but the guns of the young fellows and of some of
the Indians were reckoned on for additional supplies, excellent hunters
as they were, to whom there was likely to be no lack of game on the
islands and in the forests bordering on the stream. The river was
expected to furnish its daily quota; prawns, which ought rather to be
called crawfish; _"tambagus,"_ the finest fish in the district, of
a flavor superior to that of salmon, to which it is often compared;
_"pirarucus"_ with red scales, as large as sturgeons, which when salted
are used in great quantities throughout Brazil; _"candirus,"_ awkward to
capture, but good to eat; _"piranhas,"_ or devil-fish, striped with
red bands, and thirty inches long; turtles large and small, which
are counted by millions, and form so large a part of the food of the
natives; some of every one of these things it was hoped would figure