Cu. VIL SOUTH AMERICA. 289 



they roast and grind it, and of the flour they make a 

 decoction of what strength they please. It is then put 

 into jars or casks, with a proportional quantity of wa- 

 ter. On the second or ihird day it begins to fer- 

 ment, and when that is completed, which is in two 

 or three days more, they esteem it fit for drinking. 

 It is reckoned very cooling; and that it is inebriating, 

 is sufficiently evident from the Indians : those people 

 have indeed so little government of themselves, that 

 they never sjive over till they have emptied the cask. 

 Its tasce is not unlike cider ; but seems in some mea- 

 sure to require the dispatch of the Indians, turning 

 sour in seven or eight days after the fermentation is 

 completed. Besides its supposed quality of being 

 cooling, it is, among other medical properties, con- 

 fessedly diuretic; and to the use of this liquor the 

 Indians are supposed to be indebted for their being 

 strangers to the strangury or gravel. It is also not 

 surprising that those people who drink ic, without 

 any other food than cancha, mote, and mu':hea, 

 are, with the help of this liquor, healthy, strong, and 

 robust. 



Maize boiled till the grains begin to split, when 

 it is called mote, serves for food to the Indims, the 

 poor people, and servants in families, who being^ha- 

 bituared to it, prefer it to bread. 



Maize, before it is ripe called' chogllos, is sold in 

 the ear, and among the poorer sort of inhabitants es- 

 teemed a great dainty. 



Besides the grains of the same species with those 

 in Spain, tliis country has one peculiar to itself, and 

 very well deserving to be ranked among^the most pala- 

 table foods i but still more valuable for its being one 

 of the preservatives against all kinds of abscesses 

 and imposthumes. This useful species of grain, here 

 called quinoa, resembles a lentil in shape, but much 

 less, and very white. When boiled it opens, and out 

 of it comes a spiral fibre, which appears like a small 



Vol. I. IJ worm. 



