84: The Andes and the Amazon. 



smooth rocks. We remember but two or three table-cloths 

 which entirely covered the table, and only one which was 

 clean. There are but two daily meals ; one does not feel 

 the need of more ; they are partaken at nine and three, or 

 an hour earlier than in Guayaquil. When two unwashed, 

 uncombed cooks bend over a charcoal fire, which is fanned 

 by a third unkempt individual, and all three blinded by 

 smoke (for there is no chimney), so that it is not their 

 fault if capillaries and something worse are mingled with 

 the stew, with onions to right of them, onions to left of 

 them, onions in front of them, and achote already in the 

 pot in spite of your repeated anathemas and expostulations 

 — achote^ the same red coloring matter which tlie wild 

 Indians use for painting their bodies and dyeing their 

 cloth — and with several aboriginal wee ones romping about 

 the kitchen, keen must be the appetite that will take hold 

 with alacrity as the dishes are brought on by the most 

 slovenly waiter imagination can body forth.* The aim of 

 Ecuadorian cookery is to eradicate all natural flavor ; you 

 wouldn't know you were eating chicken except by the 

 bones. Even coffee and chocolate somehow lose their fine 

 Guayaquilian aroma in this high altitude, and the very pies 

 are stuffed with onions. But the beef, minus the garlic, is 

 most excellent, and the dulce unapproachable. 



* We noticed at Riobamba a custom which formerly prevailed also at 

 Quito. As soon as the guests have finished, and before they have risen, the 

 Indian waiter kneels devoutly do\vn beside the table, and offers thanks in a 

 very solemn, touching tone. 



