Hunting in Many Lands 



great blue sheet and the leagues of salt in- 

 crustations glimmering white on the hither 

 side, and at one spot on the horizon the blue 

 peak of some Sonora mountain rose out of the 

 seeming ocean. 



But a few deer and mussels and a half dozen 

 hills of squashes could not fill the abyss of the 

 Indian appetite. The stand-by was roasted 

 mescal. These plants grow in great numbers 

 in the country adjoining the desert, and at 

 every season there are some just right for 

 roasting. The Indians selected these and 

 cooked them for two or three days in a hole 

 in the ground, by a process called tatema, 

 similar in principle to a clam-bake. This 

 roasting converts the starchy leaves and 

 heart into a sugary mass, so that the result- 

 ing food is something like a sweet fibrous 

 beet. The Indian's life really lay in gather- 

 ing and roasting mescal. And when a storm 

 prevented the necessary fires, the tribe passed 

 days, often many days, without food. 



So much for Anastasio's early life. A year 

 ago, he told us, he went hunting with two 

 Americans. One of them came from under 

 the earth, where there were six months of 

 night, and had passed two seas and been a 



78 



