54 THE NATURALIST IX NICARAGUA. [Ch. IV. 



with a pointed stick, a few feet apart, into each of 

 which he drops two or three grains, and covers them 

 with his foot. In a few days the green leaves shoot up, 

 and grow very quickly. Numerous wild plants also 

 spring up, and in June these are weeded out ; the success 

 of the crop greatly depending upon the thoroughness 

 with which this is done. In July each plant has pro- 

 duced two or three ears ; but before the grain is set these 

 are pulled off, excepting one, as if more arc left they do 

 not mature well. The young ears are boiled whole, and 

 make a tender and much-esteemed vegetable." They 

 arc called at this stage " chilote" from the Aztec 

 xilotl ; and the ancient Mexicans in their eighth 

 month, which began on the 16th July, made a great 

 festival, called the feast of Xilonen. The poor Indians 

 now have often reason to rejoice when this stage is 

 reached, as their stores of corn are generally exhausted 

 before then, and the " chilote " is the first fruits of the 

 new crop. In the beginning of August the grains are 

 fully formed, though still tender and white ; and it 

 is eaten as green corn, now called " elotr." In Sep- 

 tember the maize is ripe, and is gathered when dry, 

 and stowed awav, generally over the rooms of the 



*/ ' O *< 



natives. A second crop is often sown in December. 



Maize is very prolific, bearing a hundred fold, and 

 ripening in April. From the most ancient times, maize 

 has been the principal food of the inhabitants of the 

 western side of tropical America. On the coast of Peru, 

 Darwin found heads of it,* along with eighteen recent 

 species of marine shells, in a raised beach eighty-five feet 



* " Geological Observations in South America, 1846," p. 49 ; and 

 " .Animals and Plants under Domestication," vol. i. p. 320. 



