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WE GAIN A SAILING-BOAT 137 |
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a short time we had produced a considerable heap of shavings like those of horse-radish. They were much amused, saying to each other :
' Will you eat a bit of nice cake made of grated radishes ?'
By this time my wife had made the bag. I filled it with the shavings, and she sewed up the end. I now wanted a kind of press. So I cut a long, stout branch from a neighbouring tree, and stripped it of the bark, and placing the bag on our table, put one end of the bough under an arch at about the height of the table, bringing the bough across the bag and pressing down the other end with all my might. After a few seconds of this pressure the sap from the manioc began to run out across the table and drip on to the ground.
After we had wrung out all the sap possible, we opened the bag, and took out a small quantity of the tapioca, and, after stirring the rest about with a stick, replaced it under the press. The next thing was to fix one of our iron plates upon two blocks of stone. Under this we lighted a large fire, and when the iron plate was hot, I made dough by moistening the tapioca flour with water, and put some of it on the plate. As soon as the cake began to be brown underneath, it was |
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