Page:The naturalist on the River Amazons 1863 v1.djvu/347

 set off alone in a montaria on a six hours' journey in the dead of night, to warn his "compadre" of the fate in store for him, and thus gave him time to fly. It was a pleasing sight to notice the cordiality of feeling and respect for each other shown by these two old men. They used to spend hours together enjoying the cool breeze, seated under a shed which overlooked the broad river, and talking of old times. Joaō Trinidade was famous for his tobacco and Tauarí cigarettes. He took particular pains in preparing the Tauarí, the envelope of the cigarettes. It is the inner bark of a tree, which separates into thin papery layers. Many trees yield it, amongst them the Courataria Guianensis and the Sapucaya nut-tree (Lecythis ollaria), both belonging to the same natural order. The bark is cut in long strips, of a breadth suitable for folding the tobacco; the inner portion is then separated, boiled, hammered with a wooden mallet, and exposed to the air for a few hours. Some kinds have a reddish colour and an astringent taste, but the sort prepared by our host was of a beautiful satiny-white hue, and perfectly tasteless. He obtained sixty, eighty, and sometimes a hundred layers from the same strip of bark. The best tobacco in Brazil is grown in the neighbourhood of Borba, on the Madeira, where the soil is a rich black loam; but tobacco of very good quality was grown by Joaō Trinidade and his neighbours along this coast, on similar soil. It is made up into slender rolls, an inch and a half in diameter and six feet in length, tapering at each end. When the leaves are gathered and partially dried, layers of them, after the mid-ribs are plucked