234 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. XIII. 



had the bottom taken out and luted to the lower one 

 with clay. This was put on a fire with the fermented 

 liquor. The spirit condensed against the flat bottom of 

 a tin dish that covered the top vessel, and into which 

 cold water was poured, and fell in drops on to a board, 

 that conducted it into a long wooden tube, from which it 

 dropped directly into bottles. 



Matagalpa does not rise above the dullness of other 

 Nicaraguan towns ; and there is a stagnation about it, 

 and utter absence of aim or effort in the people, that are 

 most distressing to a foreigner used to the bustle, busi- 

 ness, and diversions of European cities. A few women 

 washing in the river, or making tortillas or cigars in the 

 houses, was all I saw going on in the way of work. The 

 men, as usual, lolled about in hammocks, smoking inces- 

 santly. A few houses were in process of building, 

 or, rather, were standing half finished. Now and then, 

 a little is done to them ; and so they take months and 

 years to finish ; and men will show you, with the greatest 

 complacency, a half-built house on which nothing has 

 been done for two years, telling you they are so busy 

 with it that they cannot undertake anything else. There 

 are no libraries, theatres, nor concert rooms. Wo public 

 meetings nor lectures. Newspapers do not circulate 

 amongst the people, nor books of any kind. I never saw 

 a native reading, in the central provinces, excepting the 

 lawyers turning over their law books, or some of the 

 functionaries in the towns Jooking up the government 

 gazette, or children at their lessons. Night sets in at 

 six o'clock. A single dim dip candle is then lighted, in 

 the better houses, set up high, so as to shed a weak, 

 flickering light over the whole room, suflicient to read 



