NAECOTIC PLANTS AND STIMULANTS SAFFOKD. 421 



Spaniards prepare with greater neatness, care, and expense. It is of a dark- 

 red color, with a foam which rises lilie scum and which is distasteful to 

 newly arrived colonists and to those unaccustomed to drink it; but the people 

 of the country are crazy for it. They regard chocolate as a delicacy, and 

 Indians and Spaniards entertain with it the friends who come to their houses. 

 In addition to the toasted and ground cacao seeds chocolate may contain many 

 other ingredients, every one mixing with it those things which they fancy 

 will improve its quality or flavor. But everybody usually puts in these five 

 constituents: cacao, achiote {Bixa oreUana), vanilla [the fi-uiting pod of an 

 orchid called tlilxochitl, or "black flower," by the Aztecs], cinnamon [brought 

 from the East Indies after the Discovery], and sugar [also an introduced 

 product]. To these they add some other kinds of dried flowers [orejuela, or 

 ear-flower, called xochiuacaztli by the Aztecs], sesame, anise, chilli or aji 

 (Capsicum pepper), and other things more or less according to their taste. 

 In some parts of Central America (especially in Nicaragua) they make use of 

 a preparation of ground cacao mixed with toasted and ground maize, which 

 when mixed with water yields a delightful and nutritious drink called 

 tiste * * *^ "jijjg most highly prized cacao in New Spain is that which is 

 grown in the Province of Soconosco and in the diocese of Guatemala ; and 

 the largest is that of the diocese of Venezuela, or Caracas * * *. just as 

 the almonds of Chachapoyas have bats for enemies, so the cacao has monkeys, 

 which are bred in the large trees which shelter it, and they devour as much 

 as they can.^ 



Plate 16 is the photograph of a trunk of cacao growing near the 

 village of Coahuila, in the State of Chiapas, southern Mexico, taken 

 in January, 1907, by Mr. Guy N. Collins of the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, showing the peculiar habit of fruiting of the 

 tree. In this region the cultivation of cacao is more successful and 

 lucrative than in any other part of tropical America visited by Mr. 

 Collins. Plate 17, which shows a slightly reduced pod from, the same 

 tree, will give some idea of the enormous size of the pods. The seeds 

 are seen enveloped in their soft fleshy white aril. At this locality 

 the trees produce almost continuously from November to June, and 

 during this interval the pods are gathered three times. 



As soon as the seeds are removed from the pods they are washed by placing 

 them in shallow baskets partly submerged in water and rubbing them against 

 the bottom and sides of the baskets, forcing the pulp through the meshes. The 

 seeds are then sun dried, the quicker the better, it is thought. This unfer- 

 mented product would not command a high price in the European or American 

 markets, but it is said that the Mexicans do not demand a fermented bean. 

 * * * From a few miles below Pichucalco to within a few miles of San 

 Juan the banks of the river are almost continuously lined with cacao planta- 

 tions, a great part of which is shaded with rubber. * * * About l,.'iOO 

 tons of cacao pass through San Juan annually, valued at about .$1,250,000. In 

 spite of the enormous amount of cacao produced in Mexico and an import duty 

 of 30 cents per kilo, cacao is still imported from Guayaquil. In the fine cacao 

 lands above San Juan the growing of this commodity is the most lucrative 

 agricultural operation with which we are familiar. 



1 Padre Cobo. ITistoria del Nuevo Mundo, 2 : 63-64, ed. Jimenez de la Espada, 1891. 

 73839°— SM 1916 28 



