30 COCOA AND CHOCOLATE. 



spoonful of the paste upon a piece of 

 paper (the Indians put it upon the leaf of 

 a plaintain tree), where, being put into 

 the shade (for in the sun it melts and dis- 

 solves) , it grows hard ; and then bowing 

 the paper or leaf, the tablet fals off by 

 reason of the fatnesse of the paste. But if 

 it be put into anything of earth or wood, it 

 stickes fast, and will not come off but with 

 scraping or breaking. The manner of 

 drinking it is divers ; the one (being the 

 way most used in Mexico) is to take it 

 hot with Atolle, dissolving a tablet in hot 

 water, and stirring and beating it in the 

 cup, when it is to be drunk, with a Moli- 

 net, and when it is well stirred to a scum me 

 or froth, then to fill the cup with kot 

 Atolle, and so drink it sup by sup. An- 

 other way is that the chocolate, being dis- 

 solved with cold water and stirred with the 

 Molinet, and the scum me being taken off 

 and put into another vessel, the remainder 

 be set upon the fire, with as much sugar 



