INVESTIGATIONS IN CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA. 29 



Still further on I came to the district of Dota, in which the dwellings are scat- 

 tered. I visited one locality, in which were some ruined walls of ancient huild- 

 ings. The standing, outside walls of a circular edifice, seventy-eight feet in 

 diameter, were two feet and a half above the ground ; the interior space was filled 

 with earth. All around this circular ruin were visible the remains of edifices of an 

 oblong, quadrangular shape. I was shown a kind of handcuff", or napkin-ring, of 

 a porphyritic stone, the inside of which was smooth, and had two rows of four- 

 sided carvings on the outside. 



The farthest place that I reached was the new settlement of Santa Maria, still 

 in the district of Dota. There were also indications of ancient edifices. This 

 concluded my ethnological researches in Costa Rica. 



The modification of a people by circumstances is exhibited in Costa Eica by the 

 influence of the coff"ee plantations. Before the commencement of this industry the 

 inhabitants were plain-minded people, reputed for their hospitality and generous 

 feelings. They possessed abundance of food, as far as it is possible among im- 

 provident people. The prices of food, at least, were low ; that of an ahnud, in 

 Costa Rica known as cajuela, of maize, the staple food of the people, varying from 

 one real to one and a half. The value of a }-eal is twelve and a half cents. As 

 soon as the planting of coff"ee commenced as an object of industry, which took so 

 many hands away from other agricultural pursuits, the immediate consequence was 

 a rising in the price of food, which must have become scarce. At the height of 

 the mania for getting rich quickly by planting coff"ee, the price of a cajticla of 

 maize reached to three and four dollars. A cajuela of maize is about thirty-six 

 pounds, which at the time of my visit was sold for one dollar, and the other arti- 

 cles of food at corresponding prices. The price of a pound of meat was one real, 

 of that of butter four reals, of a bottle of milk one real, and so on. All these 

 prices quoted were paid in San Jose, the principal seat of the cc^ee industry, of 

 commerce, and of the government of the country. The rent of houses there 

 reaches as high as twenty gold ounces a month ; I was asked for a single room 

 with a kitchen, one ounce and a half a month. The gold ounce has a premium of 

 one dollar, and consequently its value is seventeen dollars. 



The population of Costa Rica is estimated at 8()(),00() to 1,000,000 inhabitants; 

 of these many thousands are engaged in the culture of coff"ee. I was informed 

 that three thousand ox-carts are occupied in the transportation of this product to 

 the port. The wages of a laborer are from four reals to eight a day. These and 

 the high price of food would seem to many persons favorable circumstances, and 

 as indications of the low value of money ; however, this is not the case, but the 

 opposite. Money loaned on mortgage realizes from 12 to 25 per cent, a year. 

 This high interest has ruined already many persons who wished to get rich on 

 borrowed money. 



Besides the high price of food and other necessaries, the coffee industry in Costa 

 Rica has changed the inhabitants from a simple-hearted people to one greedy after 

 money, exorbitant in their demands, and estranged to hospitality and generons 

 feelings. As a proof of this may be mentioned the single case, that on the road 

 from the port to San Jose the charge for a single cup of coff"ee is two reals, while 



