138 Harshberger. — Maize : 



found Geronimo, a Spaniard, digging as a slave in the maize 

 fields. On the road to the City of Mexico they passed 

 through large fields of waving corn, where the Aztecs 

 ambushed themselves, and shot arrows at the cruel and hated 

 invaders. 1 



The following extracts taken from a variety of sources 

 will prove sufficiently the general cultivation of Zea mays. 



"The Indians of Yucatan put the maize into water with 

 lime to steep over night. It is then given to carriers, who 

 make it into large balls or pellets, which they take with them 

 for food." - Villagutierre 3 says: " Grandes milperias, en que se 

 dans dos cosechas de frutos, consecutivos al afio y las mazorcas 

 y granos de maiz en extremo gruessos." Clavigero 4 contains 

 the substance of the earlier writers. He says:"' " In the labor 

 of the fields the men assisted the women. It was the business 

 of the men to dig and hoe the ground, to sow, to keep the earth 

 about the plants, and to reap [contrast the Iroquois, among 

 whom the squaws tilled the soil] ; to the women it belonged to 

 strip off the leaves from the ear ; and to clean the grains ; to 

 weed and shell it was the employment of both." 



" In the market places in Nicaraugua the women sell 

 slaves, maize, fish, deer, etc." "Maize and cacao are the 

 principal objects of barter, and form media of exchange." u 

 " The men were above all things farmers, and cultivated 

 maize and other crops." 7 There was a mountain tribe who, 

 in burying a corpse, crooked the legs, and put the head on 

 the knees, and tied it tightly, so that it would remain in this 

 posture; then they digged a round hole and put the body in 

 it ; round the body they put food, a chocolate cup, a calabash 

 with atole, salvados of maize, and large maize tortillas ; the 

 whole was then covered with earth. The salvados were 

 destined for the animals that the dead ate ; the tortillas for 

 the dogs that were killed and eaten. 



1 Cortes, Cartas, 64 ; Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., 1, 515 

 - Landa, § 21. 



3 Villagutierre, Hist. Itza y Lacandon, Lib. 8, cap. 12, Madrid, 1761. 



4 Clavigero, Storia Antica de Messico, 1780. 

 *Bk. vn.ch. 28. 



« Oviedo, Bk. xlii, ch. 3 (1535) . 

 ' Landa, § 23. 



