INVESTIGATIONS IN CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA. 41 



the latter is concluded with menestras, rice and beans or lentils. The common 

 bean is replaced in some regions by the seed of other leguminous plants, as the 

 Frijol del pdlo, the seed of a shrub about four feet high, which yields but three or 

 four crops. It is of smaller size, with a thinner skin than the common bean, and 

 of a good taste. Another substitute for the bean is called Vocon or Sarandaja ; 

 likewise the seed of a shrub, the leaves of which resemble those of the bean. 



In more elevated regions the rice and beans are replaced by maize; which, how- 

 ever, is never used in the shape of bread, but only boiled, as mate, or toasted under 

 the name of canclm. Both these preparations are eaten cold, a handful or two 

 composing the entire meal of the laboring class. Morocho is a variety of white 

 maize broken and boiled. It is quite palatable if eaten with milk. Chochoca is 

 another dish prepared from maize, which is taken before it is ripe and kept in 

 water for two days, by which treatment it is fermented a little to give it an acidu- 

 lous taste. After that it becomes very hard by drying, and when broken is pre- 

 served, to be boiled in water. A variety of yellow maize, called PaccJto, puffs up 

 when toasted, and is so eaten. Nuna, a small bean of various colors, acts the same 

 way and tastes similarly. 



In still more elevated regions potatoes and barley, which often are the only crop 

 that can be raised, form the only nutriment of the inhabitants. The potatoes are 

 eaten by the poorer classes boiled in their skins without any seasoning whatever, 

 not even salt. By the other classes they are prepared in other ways ; the most 

 common dish, and that which forms the beginning and end of every meal, even of the 

 richest, is called Lotjro. This consists of pieces of peeled potatoes boiled in water, to 

 which is added according to the abilities of the consumer some cheese, either alone 

 or with a small quantity of grease and meat. Less wealthy people content them- 

 selves by making a soup of peeled potatoes; when this soup is of a thick consist- 

 ency it is called Chupe. Gocopa is a kind of soup prepared of dried potatoes. 

 The peeled potatoes are first boiled, then sliced and dried to be preserved for use. 



I must remark that the potatoes are never cultivated; that is, the soil in which 

 they are planted is never manured. In consequence of this they are of small size, 

 and of an unpleasant, acrid taste. But they are also free from disease. In Chota, 

 where I found good flavored, large potatoes, which were grown in manured soil, 

 I heard the cultivator complain of their rotting. There is one thing about the 

 potatoes which I could not understand, namely: they are consumed in preference 

 to wlieat, altliough generally not very delicate in taste, and very high in price. 

 In Quito a hundred pounds of potatoes cost one dollar and sixty cents; exactly 

 the price of the same quantity of wheat. 



Next to the potato, barley forms the principal article of food in very elevated 

 regions, and is the only grain which will succeed in such localities. It is used in 

 two forms, in a dry, and in a humid state. When the barley is first toasted and 

 then ground to flour, it is eaten dry by the laboring class. The laborer takes a 

 little bag of it with him when he goes to work away from home. This meal is 

 very palatable, and, mixed with hot water and sweetened, makes a very pleasant 

 drink, which is used by the wealthier classes. The barley is also used as arroz de 

 cebada. The cracked barley is boiled in water to the consistency of mush, and 



6 October, 1878. 



