It is one of the
principal articles of food at Ega when in season, and is boiled
and eaten with treacle or salt. A dozen of the seedless fruits
makes a good nourishing meal for a grown-up person. It is the
general belief that there is more nutriment in Pupunha than in
fish or Vacca marina.
The seasons in the Upper Amazons region offer some points of
difference from those of the lower river and the district of
Para, which two sections of the country we have already seen also
differ considerably. The year at Ega is divided according to the
rises and falls of the river, with which coincide the wet and dry
periods. All the principal transactions of life of the
inhabitants are regulated by these yearly recurring phenomena.
The peculiarity of this upper region consists in there being two
rises and two falls within the year. The great annual rise
commences about the end of February and continues to the middle
of June, during which the rivers and lakes, confined during the
dry periods to their ordinary beds, gradually swell and overflow
all the lower lands.
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