CULTURE OF PEOPLE OF SOUTHEASTERN PANAMA 43 



Museum. The Tule call the upper stone " Akkwa siskwa " and the 

 nether stone ''akkwa nana." This latter stone is 35.6 cm. (14 in.) 

 long and 23 cm. (9.1 in.) broad, and 9.2 cm. (3.6 in.) thick. It is 

 of very heavy, vesiculated, gray sandstone with a rough surface. 

 The upper mano stone, fitted to the hand hold, is much smaller, with 

 its lower surface shaped to fit the slightly concave upper grinding 

 surface of the nether, or metate, stone. The rice meal used by the 

 Darien tribes is very coarse, some of the kernels are merely broken 

 fragments. Sometimes a small hand mill is secured from a trader 

 and is used instead of the mealing stones. Small cakes of meal are 

 shaped with the addition of water, pulverized coconut meat, and 

 honey. Such cakes are baked in small pottery stoves over a slow 

 burning fire. Women have charge of all such tasks of food prepa- 

 ration. Wafer wrote that this was especially true of the older 

 women, " for such work as they are able to do, as cooking, washing, 

 and the like. And abroad also the women are to attend their hus- 

 bands, and do all their servile work. When they come to the place 

 where they are to lodge, the wife dresses supper, while the man 

 hangs up the hammocks." 



The meat of the cacao bean (Theobroma cacao) "siagwa" (Tule) 

 is ground in a manner similar to corn and rice between the grinding 

 stones just described. It is then baked in a small pottery oven with 

 stove or fire compartment attached. These stoves will be described 

 in a later chapter. A cake of prepared cacao, "siyagwa kwamak- 

 kaledi" (Tule), is about 18.7 cm. (7.4 in.) in length, 8.8 cm. (3.4 

 in.) in width, and 3.6 cm. (1.4 in.) thick (pi. 23, No. 2), just large 

 enough to be slipped into a small oblong carrying basket, " pirkakka," 

 (Tule) made especially for carrying cacao, which is in general use, 

 as a beverage along with coffee and the fermented intoxicant, chicha. 

 Cacao has also a ceremonial use, especially at festivals, when cacao 

 beans are burned in small stove censers to ward off the evil spirits 

 that continually hover about. Musicians require especial protection 

 on festival occasions ; the Tule at weddings place before each musician 

 one of these little stove censers burning a cacao bean. If the wed- 

 ding festival is prolonged, an additional censer is provided for each 

 day that the celebration continues, as related by the Tule Indians 

 brought to Washington by R. O. Marsh. Pittier says that the Choco 

 have invocations which they make to their lele, in which the various 

 kinds of cacao pods are enumerated — a sly hint that a bountiful 

 harvest is expected. 



Corn and rice are quite generally cultivated, however, the manner 



of caring for these crops is a primitive type of hoe culture. When 



a small plot of ground is cleared in the forest some trees, valued for 



their -fruit or fiber, are permitted to remain standing. A hard, 



77S26— 26 4 



