OANx] MAYA INDIANS OF YUCATAN AND BRITISH HONDURAS 21 



PROCURING food; COOKING 



Both men and women take for the first meal of the day a hot 

 thick drink known as posol, made from ground corn and water, 

 often flavored with honey; later they eat tortillas, beans, and chili 

 pepper, accompanied with a cold drink made from corn. In the 

 evening they make their principal repast, which includes game, 

 pork, fish, or eggs, with beans and other vegetables, plenty of chiU 

 pepper, and either chocolate or some hot drink made from corn. 

 They use a great variety of drinks concocted of ground maize and 

 water, including chocosacan, a solution of the masa from which 

 tortillas are made, in water, flavored with a little salt; pinol, a 

 solution of ground toasted corn seasoned with pimento and other 

 spices; posol, boded corn ground to a paste and mixed with hot 

 water; sacM, very much hke posol, but the corn is not cooked 

 soft, so that the beverage is gritty; and, lastly, atol, which is cho- 

 cosacan boiled till the mixture becomes thick and glutinous. 



Tortillas, or corn cake, sometimes eaten hot, sometimes cold, 

 and at times toasted, are the Indian's chief mainstay in the way 

 of food, as they appear at every meal, and at a pinch he can exist 

 on them alone for a very long period. Tortillas are made in the 

 following way: The grain is first soaked overnight in a lye of wood 

 ashes, treatment which softens the grain and loosens the outer husk. 

 The softened grain is next ground into a fine paste on an oblong 

 stone, slightly concave, known as a metate (ka), by means of a 

 stone roUing pin thicker in the middle than at the ends, designated 

 as a brazo (u Tcahka). This procedure takes considerable time, as 

 the grain has to be ground a number of times in order to get the 

 paste to the required degree of fineness. When the paste or masa 

 is ready it is flattened by hand into small round cakes (tortOlas), 

 which are baked on an iron or earthen plaque (xamach) over a glow- 

 ing wood fire. 



The hunters are experts at barbecuing (macan) the carcasses of 

 various birds and animals, chiefly deer, peccary, wild turkey, and 

 curassow, as they often get a large supply of game when several 

 days' journey from the village, which, unless preserved in some way, 

 would c[uickly spod. The carcasses are cut into joints; the birds 

 plucked, cleaned, and spUt open; and the meat thus prepared is 

 hung in a small palm-leaf shack rendered as nearly airtight as pos- 

 sible, upon the floor of which is kindled a fire of damp cedar chips. 

 These give off some heat and great quantities of aromatic smoke, 

 so that in about 24 hours the meat is sufficiently cured to last for 

 several weeks. Meat prepared in this way is considered a great 

 delicacy. . If it is wished to preserve the meat for longer periods 

 the process is prolonged and salt may be rubbed in. Strips of meat 



