Spirits are also distilled from an infusion of very ripe bananas in water; this is allowed to ferment, and is strained before it is put into the alembic. Another fermented beverage, as well as spirit, is prepared from the yuca; the root is boiled, reduced to a pulpy substance, and placed in baskets to ferment, in the same manner as the plantains are for the masato; when mixed with water and strained, it is called _kiebla_, and the spirit distilled from it _puichin_. The water contained in the coco-nut is also allowed to ferment, but this is seldom drunk, it being considered very unwholesome. Although these people have so many intoxicating liquors, they are not prone to drunkenness.
The food of the inhabitants consists of beef and pork, which is cut into thick slices, salted and smoked. The beef which is fed on gamaloti is good, but that fed on the savanas near to the sea is much better: the hogs are fed on ripe plantains, and become very fat, but the meat is not solid. Fowls are bred in great abundance; they feed well on ripe plantains, and are delicate eating. Besides these, the woods produce game in great abundance. Among the quadrupeds are sainos, tatabras, deer, monkeys, agutis, iguanas, charapas: among the birds, poujis, huacharacas, turkeys, parrots, and wild ducks of several varieties.
The saino, tatabra, and aguti are three varieties of the caira tribe; the first is about two feet high and three feet long, and is slightly covered with coarse black hair; the snout is shorter than that of a pig; it has on its back a soft protuberance, which when opened emits a very offensive musky odour, so much so, that the animal itself rolls about, and places its nose close to the ground, as if to avoid the stench, and its companions immediately desert it. The flesh of this animal, however, is extremely delicate, and by the natives or any other person who has tasted it, it is held in the greatest estimation: to preserve it the natives smoke it in preference to using salt.
The tatabra is smaller than the saino; is very similar to it, but it has no protuberance on its back. The aguti is not so large as a rabbit; it is of a very dark grey colour, and the hind legs are much longer than the fore ones; it generally sits on its haunches like a squirrel, and might be mistaken for one; as well as the other two varieties, however, it has no tail, at least not visible. These two species are easily domesticated, they become very fat, and are good eating.