180 The Naturalist in Nicaragua 
inches deep, passing nearly through the trunk. It is about 
a foot long and four inches broad; and in this hollow the 
juice of the tree immediately begins to collect, scarcely any 
running out at the butt where it has been cut off. This 
tendency of the sap to ascend is well shown in another plant, 
the water liana. To get the water from this it must be cut 
first as high as one can reach; then about a foot from the 
ground, and out of a length of about seven feet, a pint of fine 
cool water will run; but if cut at the bottom first, the sap 
will ascend so rapidly that very little will be obtained. In 
three days after cutting the wine-palm the hollow will be 
filled with a clear yellowish wine, the fermented juice of the 
tree, and this will continue to secrete daily for twenty days, 
during which the tree will have yielded some gallons of wine. 
I was told that a very large grove of these trees was cut down 
by the government near Granada, on account of the excesses 
of the Indians, who used to assemble there on their festivals, 
and get drunk on the palm-wine. The Indians of Nicaragua, 
when the Spaniards first came amongst them, objected to 
the preaching of the padres against intemperance. They 
said “ getting drunk did no man any harm.” 
The manufacture of aguardiente is a government monopoly, 
which is farmed out to contractors. The contracts are always 
given to the political supporters of the party in power. 
There are many private illegal stills in the mountains. 
They are generally amongst thick forest, near a small brook, 
with some dense brushwood close at hand for the distiller to 
slip into if any government officers should come up. One 
day, when rambling in the woods near Santo Domingo, I 
came across one of these “sly grog’? manufactories. The 
apparatus was very simple. It consisted of two of the 
common earthenware pots of the country, one on the top of 
the other, the top one having had the bottom taken out and 
luted to the lower one with clay. This was put on a fire 
with the fermented liquor. The spirit condensed against the 
flat bottom of a tin dish that covered the top vessel, and into 
which cold water was poured, and fell in drops on to a board, 
that conducted it into a long wooden tube, from which it 
dropped directly into bottles. 
Matagalpa does not rise above the dulness of other 
Nicaraguan towns; and there is a stagnation about it, and 
