GOFIO: FOOD AND PHYSIQUE. 225 



indeed described as marvels of bodily strength, beauty, and agility, 

 because these facts have an important bearing on the question of their 

 food. As there can be no such bodily growth, strength, and activity, 

 as is described as belonging to these people, without superior nourish- 

 ment, it follows that the food used by the Guanches, and adopted 

 and still almost exclusively used by the present inhabitants, must be 

 highly nutritious. 



This article, so evidently important, is the gofio, named at the head 

 of this paper. There is nothing mysterious about it, for gofio is simply 

 flour made from any of the cereals by parching or roasting before grind- 

 ing. The Guanches may have roasted their wheat, barley, etc., by the 

 ready method of first heating stones, on which or among which the 

 grain was afterward placed. As to that there are no precise accounts, 

 but well-shaped grinding-stones are plentifully preserved. At present 

 gofio is prepared by roasting the grain in a broad, shallow earthen 

 dish, over a charcoal-fire. It is kept constantly stirred, to prevent burn- 

 ing. One can hardly pass through a village or hamlet without wit- 

 nessing some stage of the preparation of gofio. The grain is first care- 

 fully picked over and all impurities removed. The processes frequently 

 take place in front of or just within the always-open door, giving the 

 traveler ample opportunity to see all steps of the preparation. The 

 grinding is done at the wind-mills, which abound everywhere. The 

 roasted grain is ground to a very fine flour, when it becomes gofio. 

 After grinding it is ready for immediate use. When it is to be eaten, 

 milk, soup, or any suitable fluid, may be mixed with it anything, 

 in fact, to give it sufficient consistency to be conveyed into the 

 mouth. Being already cooked, it requires no further preparation 

 before eating. 



Ultimately maize was introduced into the islands, and soon became 

 an article of general cultivation, particularly on the Island of Grand 

 Canary, where gofio from it is the staple article of food for the labor- 

 ing population, as that from wheat or wheat mixed with maize is in 

 Teneriffe, wheat being more largely gi-own in the latter island. Gofio 

 is also made from barley, and especially in Fuerteventura. It is also 

 made from Spanish beans ; but this kind is not used alone, but to mix 

 in the proportion of about one fourth to three fourths of wheat, barley, 

 or maize gofio, as some prefer. Wheat and corn gofio, mixed in equal 

 proportions, is very much used, and is preferred by many to either ar- 

 ticle alone. Nothing can exceed the extreme handiness of this ready- 

 cooked article of food. The Canarian laborer, if alone, takes some 

 gofio in a bag made of the stomach of a kid ; if there are several per- 

 sons, the skin of a kid is used. When the hour for the simple meal has 

 arrived, the bag is extracted from some pocket, or, likely enough, from 

 the girdle, and putting a little w T ater into it, after being well shaken, 

 the meal is ready. Only enough water is added to make it sufficiently 

 consistent to be readily taken in the hand, from which it is invariably 



VOL. XXXI. 15 



