Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 2 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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Here We Saw For The First Time That
White And Fungous Substance Which I Have Made Known By The Name
Of
dapicho and zapis.* (* These two words belong to the Poimisano and
Paragini tongues.) We immediately perceived that it was
Analogous to
india-rubber; but, as the Indians made us understand by signs, that it
was found underground, we were inclined to think, till we arrived at
the mission of Javita, that the dapicho was a fossil caoutchouc,
though different from the elastic bitumen of Derbyshire. A Pomisano
Indian, seated by the fire in the hut of the missionary, was employed
in reducing the dapicho into black caoutchouc. He had spitted several
bits on a slender stick, and was roasting them like meat. The dapicho
blackens in proportion as it grows soft, and becomes elastic. The
resinous and aromatic smell which filled the hut, seemed to indicate
that this coloration is the effect of the decomposition of a carburet
of hydrogen, and that the carbon appears in proportion as the hydrogen
burns at a low heat. The Indian beat the softened and blackened mass
with a piece of brazil-wood, formed at one end like a club; he then
kneaded the dapicho into balls of three or four inches in diameter,
and let it cool. These balls exactly resemble the caoutchouc of the
shops, but their surface remains in general slightly viscous. They are
used at San Balthasar in the Indian game of tennis, which is
celebrated among the inhabitants of Uruana and Encaramada; they are
also cut into cylinders, to be used as corks, and are far preferable
to those made of the bark of the cork-tree.
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