INVESTIGATIONS IN CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA. 43 



account for tlic absence of torliUas, wliicli require a lively fire. In Quito the 

 bakers use small brush with wliich to bake tlieir bread, and therefore it is half 

 cooked. 



Every city and town in Central America is supplied with one fountain or more, 

 and a covered aqueduct; such is only an exceptional case in South America, as for 

 example in Quito and Lima. In otlier cities which have any artificial supply of 

 water these conduits arc real abominations. The water runs in open ditches through 

 the streets; in these every kind of filth is thrown, and everything which needs 

 cleaning is cleaned in the water. From these ditches the water is taken for all 

 domestic uses; as washing, cooking, and even drinking; only a few families send 

 to the fountain or other source for water to drink. It is true tliat most of the 

 wealthier people filter the water for drinking. This filter is a vessel in the shape 

 of an inverted cone, cut out of a kind of porous sandstone. It is set in the upper 

 part of a wooden frame, and from the low point of the cone drops the filtered 

 water into a Tiiidja, a roundish unglazed earthen jar. The circumstance of being 

 unglazed permits the evaporation of some of the water, by which the rest is kept 

 cool. - Good, clear, potable water is rather scarce in South America. The greater 

 part of the raountanis being of a volcanic character, that is, eitlier active volcanoes 

 or the products of such, all the water of the springs and streams in some regions, 

 as for example those of the Chimborazo, contain some salts in solution, which is 

 indicated by their milky color. In Peru, again, the streams disappear in the dry 

 season, only pools of water of smaller or greater dimensions remaining in their 

 beds. To these pools the animals go to drink, and the people of the vicinity go 

 to wash their clothes and to bathe themselves; and even use the water for cooking 

 and drinking. This may be one of the reasons why so few people drink water, 

 the greatest number of tliose who can aff'ord it using fermented li(piors. At the 

 head of these in regard to quantity, stands the cJticha, a kind of beer prepared 

 from maize, as in Central America. A Prefect of a district assured me that nine- 

 tenths of all the maize grown in his district is converted into chicha. 



A stronger alcoholic liquor is aguai-'h'ritte, rum distilled from the juice of the 

 sugar-cane. Far the greatest part of all the cane grown is for the purpose of 

 making rum. All classes in South America are iiifected with the mania for making 

 money by manufacturing or selling this stufi". I saw a Doctor of Laws working a 

 sugar plantation, from the produce of which to distil rum, and a priest running two 

 sugar plantations for the same purpose. The dwelling of the curate of Huarmaca 

 had three continuous apartments. The middle apartment was for his personal 

 use; that on the left served as a storeroom and sleeping-room for liis nephew; and 

 in the one on the right this nephew sold rum for his uncle's benefit. And to com- 

 plete the incongruity, the nephew kept a private school in the same locality where 

 he sold the rum; there being no public school in that village. 



Another very favorite beverage is the Magamora negra, a gelatinous gruel pre- 

 pared from the meal of a black variety of maize exposed to a sliglit fermentation, 

 by which it gets a very pleasant acidulous taste. In some regions an alcoholic 

 liquor (cJiocho) is prepared from the tuberous roots of the lupine. 



The universal garment in South America is the poncho. Two strips of cloth. 



