8 



At a recent meeting of the Essex Institute, just previ- 

 ous to entering again upon his explorations, Mr. McNiel, 

 in a brief address, gave an entertaining account of what 

 he had seen, substantially as follows : 



It is easy to reach and to travel in Nicaragua, but it is 

 a very unpleasant country to live in. This is owing to 

 the absence of the most ordinary comforts of civilized 

 life, and the uncleanly habits of the natives. The people 

 are strikingly peculiar. They lack less an aptitude, than 

 an inclination to learn. They show but little ambition or 

 foresight. A full meal of "tortilla" (or little cakes of 

 corn) produces perfect content, and indifference to the 

 future. 



Their process for preparing corn to be made into cakes, 

 is especially interesting, explaining, as it does, the former 

 use of certain Indian implements found in New England. 

 The corn is parboiled in a solution of wood ashes until its 

 cuticle can be removed by rubbing. Its hull is then 

 rubbed off, whereupon the kernel, softened and hulled, is 

 placed upon a flat stone to be mashed. To do this they 

 use a long, irregularly cylindrical stone, somewhat taper- 

 ing at the ends, and somewhat flattened upon one side 

 by the attrition produced in the mashing process. They 

 hold this masher by the ends, and by half rolling, halt 

 rubbing, and at the same time compressing the corn, they 

 reduce it to a fine pulp. This pulp they mould with their 

 hands into small cafes, to be baked on pans over ovens 

 made in the earth. 



Recently a severe storm washed away a portion of the 

 coast of Punta Icaca, in Rialejo Bay, and brought to light 

 a nearly flat stone, with three legs and with a knob at 

 one end shaped to resemble the head of a tortoise. 

 With the stone pan was a stone masher, like those now 

 used ; similar to those which have been found often 



