6 ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND ETHNOLOGICAL 



consisting of five tortillas, and some beans cooked in water. All the employes 

 have to work every day, without any exception, from curly morning till 9 o'clock at 

 night. This incessant toil, without any remission, to which is joined the purely 

 vegetable diet, causes the greater nnmber of the men to get sick. They become 

 affected with dropsy in the legs and often in the whole body. 



During my stay, my gun supplied at times the table of the officials — four in 

 number — at which I had a place — with fresh meat, which was very scarce in Salinas. 

 In that way we got two Mexican turkeys (curasoes), a macaw, a monkey, and I 

 shot once a serpent six feet six inches long, the meat of which was quite appre- 

 ciated, being not inferior to that of a fowl. The most delicious vegetable eaten in 

 this region is the baked tender sprouts of two species of palm, called Paterna. It 

 surpasses in delicacy and tenderness any vegetable known to me. There was also 

 a species of grayish fungus growing on decayed wood, more tender than mushroom, 

 and of a finer taste. 



The ordinary food of all the inhabitants of the Republic of Guatemala without 

 any distinction, and of most of the Central American States, consists of boiled beans 

 and tortillas. These two kinds of food are the almost exclusive nourishment of the 

 country people and the laboring class ; to which exceptionally is added some desic- 

 cated meat, a piece of cheese, or a fried egg. The preparation of the beans is 

 different with the different classes; the poorer, classes simply boil them in water 

 without any addition to it, not even salt, while the wealthier season them with 

 salt and lard; thus prepared, they form the principal dish of every repast. 



The preparation of the tortillas is rather a complicated process. Slielled maize 

 is boiled in water to which is added some lime, either slaked or unslaked, with 

 wood ashes. Tlie lime is added to whiten the maize, the wood ashes to make the 

 separation of the hull from the grain easy. After the maize is sufficiently boiled, 

 it is taken to the brook and washed repeatedly, to free it from the hulls as well as 

 from the lime and ashes. Thus cleaned, a certain quantity of it is put on the stone 

 made for that purpose, and crushed. This is done by a woman in a kneeling pos- 

 ture. The term crushing expresses better the operation of reducing the soft kernels 

 of maize than "grinding." ^¥hile the woman is crushing the kernels, a flat pan 

 is heated over a wood fire; in this a certain quantity of the crushed maize formed 

 into paste, and flattened with the palms of the hands, is put to bake. Both these 

 operations, crushing and baking, are performed by the same person simultaneously; 

 the baked tortillas are either placed in a part of the pan least exposed to the fire, 

 or wrapped in a cloth and put in a basket, or Jmacal, to keep them warm, for they 

 are only eaten warm, and if more are made than are consumed at once, they are 

 warmed again before eating. This however is done only in travelling; otherwise 

 they are prepared fresh before each of the two daily meals : no salt or other 

 seasoning is commonly added to the tortillas. This is a circumstance of high 

 physiological interest, proving the error of the general belief, in which most 

 physiologists participate, that salt is a condiment of food necessary to sustain good 

 health. 



On festival occasions a kind of food, called tamal, is prepared, which consists 

 of a piece of meat (generally pork), put in the middle of a quantity of paste, the 



