THE FARMER AT HOME. 85 



bellies almost touching the ground, light head and ears, fine muzzle, 

 of great docility and quietness, small feeders, and producing much 

 meat for the quantity of food consumed. 



CHOCOLATE. A kind of cake or confection, prepared of cer- 

 tain drugs ; the basis or principal whereof is the cocoa-nut. The 

 Spaniards were the first who brought chocolate into use in Europe ; 

 and that, perhaps, as much out of interest, to have the better market 

 for their cocoa-nuts, vanilla, and other drugs which their West Indies 

 furnish, and which enter the composition of chocolate, as out of regard 

 to those extraordinary virtues which their authors so amply enumerate 

 in it. 



The method first used by the Spaniards was very simple, and the 

 same with that in use among the Indians ; they only used cocoa-nuts, 

 maize, and raw sugar as expressed from the canes, with a little 

 achiotte, or roucon, to give it a color ; of these four drugs, ground be- 

 tween two stones, and mixed together in a certain proportion, they 

 made a kind of bread, which served them equally for solid food, and 

 for drink ; eating it dry w r hen hungry, and steeping it in hot water 

 when thirsty. The Indians, to one pound of the roasted nuts, put 

 half a pound of sugar, dissolved in rose-water, and half a pound of 

 flour of maize. 



The Spaniards esteem it the last misfortune that can befall a man, 

 to be reduced to want chocolate ; they are never known to leave it, 

 excepting for some other liquor that will intoxicate. Hoffman con- 

 siders chocolate as an aliment, arid, in a medicinal view, he recom- 

 mends it in emaciating diseases, both as an aliment and medicine; 

 and next very strenuously in hypochondriacal cases ; and in confirma- 

 tion, adduces that of Cardinal Richelieu, who, he says, was restored 

 to health by living on chocolate. He is not less copious on its good 

 effects against the haemorrhoids. The newest chocolate is esteemed 

 the best ; the drug never keeping well above two years, but usually 

 degenerating much before that time. 



CHRYSALIS. In natural history, a state of rest and seeming 

 insensibility which butterflies, moths, and several other kinds of 

 insects, must pass through before they arrive at their winged or most 

 perfect state. The first state of these animals is in the caterpillar or 

 reptile form ; then they pass into the chrysalis state, wherein they 

 remain, immovably fixed to one spot, and surrounded with a case or 

 covering, which is generally of a conical figure ; and, lastly, after 

 spending the usual time in this middle state, they throw off the exter- 

 nal case wherein they lay imprisoned, and appear in their most perfect 

 and winged form of butterflies, or flies. 



CHURN. An implement for agitating cream or milk, so as to 

 effect the production of butter. Some churns are made upright, of a 

 tapering form, and are worked by means of a pole and cross ; the 

 former passing through a hole in the lid. These are pail or bell- 





