38 BULLETIN 134, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



also boiled, sweetened, and drunk. A young infant may be given a 

 preparation of sweetened corn juice or water in which cacao beans 

 have been boiled. Chicken broth is later fed to the young child. 

 The child is also allowed to chew a stock of sugar cane; it may be 

 found on the floor probably fighting with the pigs for possession of 

 the juiciest stock of cane. The first solid food given to the child 

 consists of boiled fish or sweet potatoes. 



The native drink, chicha, " chee-sa " (Tule), is made from the 

 fermented juice of the sugar-cane, banana, or corn. The juice is 

 cooked in kettles placed over a slow fire. This operation is assigned 

 to men skilled in their task, who watch the boiling kettles until they 

 pronounce the taste of the concoction satisfactory. It is then placed 

 in jugs which are covered with leaves to aid in the steeping process 

 that it now passes through. Before the boiling of the juice is begun, 

 women chew the corn and mix it with saliva until a proper con- 

 sistency is reached, when they spit it into the cooking vessels. After 

 a few days the fermenting process is completed, and the chicha is 

 ready for consumption. 



Wafer, writing in 1699, describes the method of preparation then 

 in use by the central Darien tribes as follows: 



They make a drink also of their maize, which they call chichah Copah ; for 

 Copah signifies drink. They steep in a trough of water a quantity of maize 

 bruised, letting it lie so long till the water is impregnated with the corn, and 

 begins to turn sour. Then the women, usually some old women, who have 

 little else to do, come together, and chew grains of maize in their mouths, 

 which they spit out each into a gourd or calabash ; and when they think they 

 have a sufficient quantity of this spittle and maize in the calabashes, they 

 empty them into the trough of water, after having just taken out the maize 

 that was infused in it ; and this serves instead of yeast, setting all the trough 

 of liquor in a small ferment. When it has done working, they draw if off clean 

 from the sediment into another trough, and then 'tis ready for use. 



A considerable variety exists among the tribal groups in their 

 food-getting habits. The San Bias coast Tule have an accessible 

 market for turtle shell, bananas, and coconuts; in exchange, trade 

 guns, powder, matches, canned goods of various kinds, etc., are ob- 

 tained. 



The Tule who live in the valleys of the Mandinga and Nercalagua 

 and other inland localities are more farmers than traders, depend- 

 ing almost wholly on their crops and other local supplies. The 

 same applies to the Sucubdi of the Sucubdi River Valley, in the 

 upland interior. The Chucunaque and Morti at the head of the 

 uhucunaque River, living more isolated and apart, are more given 

 to the hunt and are known as more warlike and unstable. The same 

 reputation is shared by the Cuna group called " bravos," or " wild '" 

 Cuna, living in the upper valleys of the Pucro, Paija, and Capeti 

 of the central Cordillera, although Mr. Marsh found their chief 



