302 Beyond the >>h'rr<is. 



banquet itself wa;; a thing of Spanish ilesoent, wiili .Mexican nioJirtcations 

 ami development. He would, accordingly, introduce his head cook to us to 

 announce the bill of fare. That gentleman, accordingly, stood a moment at 

 Mr. Coleman's right, dressed after the manner of his profession, and told us, 

 in fair American English, what he had to serve to us. It was as follows: 



1. Cabasa toro con chili e frijoles. This, being interpreted, means bull's 

 head with red pepper and beans. 



2. Chili con carni, which signities red pep))er with meat ; or, in com- 

 nion language, what is known as a Spanish stew. 



3. Poyo con chili, which signifies chicken with red pepper. ^ 



4. Boyrago chicito sin chili, which is lamb ivillu.ut red pepper. 



Here, then, we had four cour-ses announced, three of which were with 

 chili, and one without it. There is nothing chilly about chili ; it has a warm- 

 ing efl'ect. Doubtless the lamb was thought by the old Mexicans to be too 

 young to bear the excitement of chili I 



But let us go into details a moment. The cook explained to us how the 

 bull's head or heads (if there are more than one) are prepared. First, toro 

 is decapitated; and the head, just as it is, is thrust into a bag like a collee- 

 sack and sewn up. The bag is then plastered over to a considerable thick- 

 ness with mud, and the whole is lowered into a furnace or earthen pit, 

 where red-hot stones have produced the requisite heat. In due time the 

 head is cooked, and is taken out; the earthen shell is broken oil", the bag 

 opened and the hide stripped away ; and there you are. Then comes the 

 seasoning, in which chili is used to an extent which no American throat 

 could bear without an educational course in pepper. To the Mexican, how- 

 ever, and to the old Calif ornian as he was in the days of mining, the red 

 pepper, which is the only seasoning used with meat so cooked, was merely 

 a pleasant exciUxnt to the appetite. Mr. Coleman told us that in our case he 

 had ordered only about a fourth of the usual amount of red pepper to be 

 used. He had tempered the wind to our constitutions. 



Now, all ye men beyond the mountains, hear this well. The cooking of 

 meats, as it is practiced among you, that is among tis, is one of the lost arts. 

 I repeat and emphasize what I believe to have been the unanimous judgment 

 of the two hundred of us who breakfasted with Mr. Coleman, that the bull'.s 

 head served to us in this Hispanio-Mexican fashion wiis the most delicious 

 of any meat ever offered to our palates ; and the same may be said of the 

 other courses. The whole was one of those life-giving barbacucs which the 

 stomach of man understands better than his other faculties. Nothing could 

 have added to the reckless freedom in the enjoyment of which we soon 

 found ourselves. We helped each other and called for more; and so on, to 

 the end of the banquet. The festival was like Homer's Iliad in one respect : 

 it did not conclude, but merely ceased. 



Then we had some speech-making, which was, in like manner, emanci- 

 pated from the formalities of rhetoric and the precise forms of the syllogism. 

 Our host made us an address full of cordiality and good will. He also intro- 

 duced to us Mr. Donahue, president of the railway over which we had jour- 



