mat£ custom 47 



liquid tasting not unlike boneset tea, and passed it back. 

 It was refilled with water, and passed to the next one, 

 same cup, same bombillo; and so it continued to make 

 the rounds of the company and hosts until supper was 

 ready. The individual drinking cup idea has not reached 

 this section, and one would like to choose one's turn, but 

 to hesitate would be the greatest breach of hospitality. 

 The natives spend hours squatting before a fire, sucking 

 the mate and chatting. 



Our supper was a side of mutton, threaded on a long 

 iron spit, which was driven into the ground so as to incline 

 over the fire. When the meat was cooked through, the 

 iron was taken from the fire and thrust firmly into the 

 ground in our midst. The etiquette of the occasion required 

 each man to draw his sheath knife (which every man in the 

 country carries in his belt), and for the first man to cut 

 off a small helping from the upper corner; then in turn 

 everyone sliced off a rib from the bottom up. Mutton, 

 mate and galletas made our meal, the last being oval biscuits 

 which had been baked and then thoroughly dried. These 

 are sold everwhere by the kilo, their virtue being that they 

 will keep indefinitely. 



After only a little conversation, for the natives had diffi- 

 culty in understanding our Spanish, we turned in, two of 

 us in one of their beds, the others on the top of the load 

 under the wagon cover. In the morning we had a break- 

 fast of boiled mutton, macaroni and mate. Among these 

 people, engaged entirely in caring for sheep, and in a 

 country where canned and dried meats are unknown, and 

 the enterprising canned vegetable has not penetrated, 

 practically the whole diet of the people is mutton, with 

 some macaroni and rice. Something like mate, therefore, 

 has to be used to keep the bowels in condition, and in a 

 short time the taste is acquired, so that although tea and 

 coffee are being introduced, there is no diminution in the 

 amount of mate consumed. 



