37 
pink color and the taste of hard cider. They peel and then press 
it; the juice is passed through straw sieves and placed by the fire 
or in the sun where it begins to ferment in about an hour. We 
also have species of Opuntia available for the purpose in our south- 
western territory but I am not aware that they ever were utilized 
in this way. 
Several species of Yucca, notably Y. édaccata Torr., Y. macro- 
carpa Coville and Y. 7reculeana Carr., of our southwestern terri- 
tory and northern Mexico, bear a fleshy, banana-like fruit which is 
delicious when ripe. It contains a‘large proportion of sugar and 
is easily converted by the Chihuahua Indians into a fermented 
beverage which is sometimes distilled by the Mexicans into indif- 
ferent aguardiente. 
The Mezquite (Prosopis juliflora DC.) is by far the most com- 
mon tree or shrub of the immense desert tracts drained by the 
Rio Grande, Gila and Lower Colorado, as it is the most useful to 
their inhabitants, supplying both food and fuel. The fruit is a 
bean-like pod containing more than half its weight of nutritive 
Principles, especially sugar in the proportion of 25 to 30 per cent.; 
when cooked, pounded, mixed in water and strained, it yields a 
very nutritive and pleasant beverage called “atole;” this readily, 
undergoes fermentation whereby a kind of beer is produced, for- _ 
merly much used by the Colorado and Gila River Indians. 
Another species of Prosopis (P. pudescens Benth.), called Screw 
Bean or Tornillo and also very abundant in the same region, bears 
likewise a very saccharine fruit used in the same way. ee 
This ends the list of plants yielding alcoholic liquors. It ap- 
pears that the only United States Indians preparing these liquors 
were those of our southwestern border. The most obvious reason _ 
for this geographical peculiarity is that these Indians have always © : 
had relations with the Mexican natives and were visited at a very © 
early date by white men; thus Arizona and New Mexico were — 
pretty thoroughly explored by Spaniards before Hudson entered 
the Bay of New York or the May Flower landed at nichosonsi : 
Rock. : 
We might perhaps account for the ignorance of our eastern é 
Indians concerning “corn beer” which, after all, ‘is only a vile 
beverage, but we may” well wonder at 
