INVESTIGATIONS IN CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA. 19 



of a certain number of men as curators (cunidores), one for each district, who are 

 subjected to a chief curator. Their duties are to transact all commercial business, 

 such as selling and buying for the Xicagues, who in return have to perform some 

 work for the carador. The two principal articles of their commerce are sarsa and 

 tobacco. One of the three species of sarsa is par ilia, known as " Sarsaparilla." 

 They collect the sarsa for their own benefit, and the tobacco they plant for the 

 benefit of the church, which, of course, is the missionary. 



The northern part of the department of Olancho in Honduras is inhabited by 

 a tribe of aborigines by the name of Peschka (Germ, spell). I passed twice the 

 modern village of Dulce Nombre, in which all the inhabitants belong to that tribe, 

 and only a few of them understand Spanish. In former years they lived in a 

 village four miles to the north, named Culme, which is at present entirely deserted. 

 It was in the second quarter of this century that the inhabitants of Uulce Nombre 

 were baptized and induced to form a settlement. The greater part of this tribe 

 are still livnig scattered on their plantations in the woods ; they are more numerous 

 near the Atlantic coast, and many of them are not baptized, but all manifest a 

 peaceful disposition. 



The Peschkas are of the ordinary size of Central American Indians, and their 

 stflture is less than that of the Xicagues. They are also of a darker com- 

 plexion than the last named. They are industrious (for that country), and 

 principally agriculturists. Besides maize and rice they raise plantains, bananas, 

 sweet potatoes, yams, and yucca. This last, the tuberous roots of jatropha maniJtat, 

 forms their principal food, being consumed like bread, and replacing the tortillas 

 of the other inhabitants of Honduras. It is prepared in the following manner. 

 The root is first boiled and mashed, forming a kind of paste, which is allowed 

 to ferment a little, by which it acquires a sourish taste. It is then divided 

 into pieces of the size of a fist, which are rolled out in the shape of a hand, and 

 wrapped in plantain leaves until used. It seems that the tortillas never enter 

 into tlieir diet, as their language docs not possess a term for them. Besides the 

 yucca they plant other kinds of tuberous roots. Chocolate is not their usual bev- 

 erage, as in Guatemala, but a drink called jj«Mo/e prepared from the meal of toasted 

 maize put in boiling water and sweetened with rasjjadura, a dark, unclaritied sugar. 

 This pinole is also used in those parts of Central America where cacao is scarce. 

 In every hut through Central America is a pot with boiling water standing at the 

 fire, always ready for the preparation of chocolate ox pinole, which is offered to every 

 visitor. 



The skin of the greater number of the inhabitants of Dulce Nombre is spotted ; 

 darker spots alternating with those of a lighter color, irregular in shape and size. 

 The darker spots represent the normal color of the skin, while the lighter ones are 

 the eff"ects of a cutaneous disease, which is probably of a syphilitic character. 

 This phenomenon is not confined solely to the inhabitants of Dulce Nombre, but 

 many of the different tribes are subject to it. The first case that I observed 

 was in the state of Chiapas. The family of the overseer of the Jiacienda Tres 

 Graces, consisting of the father, mother, and a daughter, were affected with it. 

 In Juticalpa I saw a man on whose skin the normal dark color had entirely 



