INHABITANTS. 221 
the purpose, called a metate. The cake is then beaten with the 
hand to make it thin, and when seasoned with a little salt, or 
colored with the viscous substance of the Achate, laid on a shal- 
low plate of clay to bake. In this form they are eaten hot, and 
called tortillas. For distant journeys, &c, a more durable spe- 
cies, baked crisp and dry, called totepostle, and somewhat anal- 
ogous to sea-biscuit, is frequently made. On feast-days and such 
like occasions, these are sometimes made of the purple grains 
of the maize, and enriched by the addition of a few frijoles, 
Besides this primitive bread, they make from the maize a gruel 
called atole, which, when sweetened with wild honey, or panel®, 
is an agreeable and salutary food. Next to maize, the vegeta- 
bles most in use are the cacao and the frvjole ; of the former 
(especially from a kind called. petaste, which has a full aromatic 
flavor) they make the delightful beverage of chocolate, while 
the latter, from its richness, serves in many instances the place 
of animal food. Indeed, in a comparative point of view, their 
consumption of flesh-meat is exceedingly limited ; even eggs, of 
which they have an abundance, are seldom eaten, except those 
of the turtle and the iguana. In almost every case, a prefer- 
ence is given for wild game over every other kind of meat ; and 
in some instances this predilection leads to the use of unwhole- 
some food, which manifests itself in the form of cutaneous erup- 
tions and leprous diseases of the most disgusting character. 
The endless variety of fruits peculiar to this portion of Mexico, 
also contributes largely to the subsistence of the Indians, and 
from them they make many refreshing beverages, while the 
trees themselves furnish either thatches, ropes, cords, thread, 
remedies, balsams, or dyes. 
Little need be said of the dress of the natives, which is 
formed from the plainest and coarsest materials. The attire of 
the women consists of a simple cotton cloth, drawn tightly 
round the waist, and descending to the knees, leaving the breast 
and shoulders entirely exposed. The hair is either bound with 
gay-colored ribbons, and thrown in dark shining masses over 
the neck, or neatly looped up on the back of the head, where it 
is retained by a broad semicircular comb, and interspersed with 
wild-flowers ; or, on the occasion of a fiesta, illuminated with 
