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.
4th October.