426 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 193 4 



In the highlands of the Maya area we encounter salt wells at 

 Ixtapa ^ in the State of Chiapas, at Salinas on the Chixoy River * 

 in Guatemala, and a few other places. But this production was 

 small and very localized in distribution. 



Game, such as deer, wild hog, and turkey was abundant; and the 

 sea, rivers, and lakes gave fish in plenty. 



Sweetening was derived from honey. The Central American 

 bee is stingless, and most honey was gathered in the forests, though 

 we do hear of large shelters in which hollow logs are stacked as 

 beehives (Davila, in Oviedo, 1851, 1853), There must have been 

 an extensive trade in this commodity, because the Spaniards consid- 

 ered honey one of the things in which tribute could be paid. The 

 byproduct of honey, wax, was also a merchandise and may have 

 been used in pre-Columbian times for candles. Today we find 

 that the tribes living in the remote parts of the Maya area make bees- 

 wax candles, and that black candles are particularly favored as 

 offerings to the ancient gods. 



From Bartolome Columbus' report we learn of an intoxicating 

 drink made of maize, and from the conquerors we hear of the famous 

 drink called " balche " made of the bark of a certain tree, and quite 

 intoxicating. The most favored beverage, though, was cacao or 

 chocolate. 



Almost none of our informants fails to mention the cacao (cocoa, 

 Theohroma L.) bean as the ingredient for a drink, but in particular 

 they speak of it as being the monetary unit of most of the Middle 

 American peoples: Aztec, Maya, the inhabitants of Nicaragua and 

 Panama, all used this bean as their monetary basis, to the amaze- 

 ment of the Spaniards, who were driving through these countries 

 looting and killing to enrich themselves on their own monetary 

 units, gold and silver. 



Oviedo gives us a lengthy statement about the cacao-bean money, 

 and though he speaks of Nicaragua, we will show through other 

 quotations that this coin was in such general use that it is likely 

 that his statement holds good for all countries, from the valley of 

 Mexico to Panama. 



In the " Historia General y Natural de Indias ", Libro 8, Capi- 

 tulo 30 (edition 1851, vol. I, pp. 316-317), we find the following 

 statement concerning cacao beans, or " almonds ", as Oviedo calls 

 them: 



» Istac, the Nahuatl word for white or salt ; apan, water. 



* Pinelo, Leon. Kelacion • * * sobre la pacificacifin y poblaciSn de las Provincias 

 del MancM, i Lacandon, etc. 1639. "In 1625 the Father Francisco Moran penetrated 

 to a place called : ' Bolontehuitz ', which is the same as Nine Mountains, where he dis- 

 covered a stream, which running into some flats, forms a great salt mine, unique and 

 singular in all that land of the Ah-Itza." 



