The Isthmus of Tehuantepec. 



163 



the blanket incommodes them, and they use it only as a 

 cushion. A traveler sometimes surprises a group sitting 

 in this manner and dressing each other's long hair. In the 

 damp and cool mornings the men come out of their huts 

 covered in blankets to the chin, and shivering with cold, 

 while the women wear nothing above their waists, and ap- 

 pear to be comfortable, while moving about to build the 

 fire and prepare breakfast. 



The Indian's cultivation of the ground is limited. A small 

 piece of ground, once cleared and planted with maize, is 

 handed down from one generation to another, and receives 

 no more attention or labor, except to pluck the ripe maize. 



They subsist on dried beef, and a kind of hoe cake, made 

 from maize, mixed with water, which they grind between 

 two stones, and bake on a stone in the embers. This is 

 palatable when taken hot. The dried beef is prepared by 

 cutting the flesh in strips, about an inch square, and as long 

 as the animal will yield. It is dried in the sun and sold 

 for six-pence a yard. The yard weighs two pounds. It can 

 be eaten raw when no fire is handy, but is generally wound 

 round a stick and held over the fire until it is brown. It 

 undergoes a partial decay while being dried in the sun, and 

 never quite loses that flavor. Fresh beef decays so quickly, 

 in the lump, that, although in a large settlement many cat- 

 tle may be slaughtered in a week, it is scarcely ever seen 

 at a meal. 



Sugar cane grows in great abundance and is made into 

 a coarse brown sugar called panella. 



The chief article of diet is the Mexican bean called Frijol. 

 These beans are boiled, and eaten at all times and seasons, 

 in quantities to make a foreigner shudder. The beans are 

 half an inch long, round, black, and with a shining surface. 

 They are cheap and abundant. 



The marriages of the natives are by mutual consent, appa- 

 rently without ceremony: they marry young. Women are 



