NO. II MUSIC OF TULE INDIANS OF PANAMA DENSMORE 35 



NOTES ON TULE CUSTOMS 



FOOD 



The fruits gathered by the Tule include cocoanuts, oranges, pine- 

 apples, mangoes, and certain varieties of alligator pear, but they 

 have no edible berries. On their farms they cultivate corn, sugar- 

 cane, cassava, and plantain as well as sweet potato, pumpkin, and 

 other vegetables. Beans are used very little. Many sorts of pepper 

 are raised, the people being particularly fond of red pepper. Scare- 

 crows are erected to protect growing crops. Corn is eaten when 

 green, or allowed to ripen and put in little storehouses near the field, 

 or it may be taken across to the islands and stored there. The owner 

 often makes a little fire under the storehouse to keep the corn dry, 

 and he watches that animals do not molest it. 



At present the corn is ground in a handniill purchased in Panama 

 City, and the cornmeal is made intO' bread. A favorite delicacy is 

 made of cornmeal and grated cocoanut, sweetened with sugar-cane 

 juice, shaped into a long loaf and baked on top of the stove. " Sugar- 

 plums " are made of cornmeal and sugar-cane juice boiled all day so 

 it becomes very thick. Similar confections as well as sirup are made 

 of sugar-cane juice, boiled a long time. 



The game consists of deer and wild pigeon, turkey and other 

 birds. Meat is never dried. If a man kills some game he eats it for 

 one or two meals and gives the remainder to relatives and friends or 

 invites them to a feast. The meat is all eaten in one day. For a long 

 time they have had domestic fowl, including chickens, ducks, tame 

 pigeons, and occasionally turkeys. Pigs are also kept and eaten. 



From the Caribbean Sea the Tule obtain crabs and lobsters, and 

 from streams and rivers on the main land they obtain fresh water 

 lobsters, as well as trout, smelt, and other fish. They never take 

 home the fish caught in the small streams, but fish from the rivers 

 are taken to the islands and prepared in various ways. Fish may be 

 boiled in fresh cocoanut milk. The women boil cocoanut milk, skim 

 ofif the oil that rises to the top and put it away in a bottle for use in 

 frying fish. If the Indians wish to keep fish they score it with a 

 knife, rub it with salt and dry it on a slat frame over an open fire. 

 A few hours is sufficient for the drying of fish. 



The principal beverages are cofifee and an infusion of the cocoa 

 bean. Infusions of various leaves are also used including the leaves 

 of orange trees and a fragrant leaf called " fever grass." Plantain 

 juice, boiled and sweetened, is used as a drink. Another favorite 

 drink consists of sugar-cane juice boiled a long time, after which a 

 tiny bit of corn is added. This drink takes so long to prepare that 



