26 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 34 



"bagre." The more eastern Cora do not eat the squirrel. Some 

 of those of Jesus Maria make cheese, after the manner of the Mexi- 

 cans. Poultry and eggs are quite plentiful in some of the villages. 

 When a deer is killed and can not be consumed fresh the carcass is 

 placed in a large hole in the ground, which has first been thoroughly 

 heated, and then covered with grass and branches; the meat thus 

 becomes slowly and thoroughly baked. The Huichol cut such meat 

 into small pieces which are strung on cords and dried and afterward 

 hung inside the hut until needed. 



A very large proportion of the food of the Otomi consists of tortillas, 

 beans, and chile. As is the case with all the tribes living in the 

 maguey region, they regard pulque as food, and apparently this- 

 liquid has some nutritious value. On the public road a little beyond 

 Fajayucan the writer came across an Otomi family engaged in roasting 

 and selling pigs' ears, snouts, and other articles of diet, with pulque, 

 to the passers-by; yet pigs are rarely seen in the typical Otomi set- 

 tlements. Tuna is very common, pitahaya scarce. In many districts 

 the food of the people is much like that of the poorer Mexicans in the 

 same localities. 



The Tlahuiltec, though living for centuries near the whites, still 

 avoid milk, and no hogs are seen in their village. Maize, melons, 

 squashes, cane, and various fruits, eggs, and beef, with an occasional 

 chicken, are the principal articles of diet. 



(For further data concerning foods see Appendix.) 



VII. ALCOHOLIC DRINKS 



The alcoholic drinks peculiar to the Indians of the Southwest and 

 of northern Mexico are mainly produced by fermentation of corn, 

 mescal, and maguey. The corn liquor is usually known as tesvino 

 (also as tesvin, tizwin, or tulipi) ; it is ordinarily (with fermentation 

 not carried to the extreme, and in the absence of vegetal excitants, 

 narcotics, or other liquor) a weak alcoholic beverage with a slight 

 nutritive value, and is not a strong intoxicant. The mescal plants, 

 comprising several species of agave, give colorless liquors known as 

 mescal and tequila; the first is often spoken of simply as vino. 

 Another liquor, called sotol, is made from the dasylirion (Rose). 

 These are all distilled beverages and are usually ardent and strongly 

 alcoholic, particularly the tequila. The common maguey, or century 

 plant, yields the well-known pulque," a milky, sourish beer, the alco- 

 holic percentage of which depends on the duration of fermentation. 

 The knowledge and use of tesvino and mescal extend into Arizona, 

 pulque and the maguey liquors being made only in the more southerly 



oAgaves yielding juice from which pulque is made are of several species, the most common being A. 

 atrovirens. 



