90 



inhabitants cultivate eight or nine varieties of it, se- 

 veral of which are very productive. But that which 

 is in the highest repute with them is called uminta ; 

 from this they prepare a dish by bruising the corn 

 while it is green between two stones into the form 

 of paste, to which is added sufficient salt or butter 

 and sugar to season it ; it is then divided into small 

 portions or cakes, which are enclosed separately 

 within the inner skin or husk of the corn and boiled. 



When the maize is ripe the Indians prepare it for 

 winter in two different modes, either by slightly 

 roasting it, which they call chuchoca^ or by drying it 

 in the sun ; from the former they make a kind of 

 soup, by boiling it in water, and from the latter a 

 beer of a very pleasant taste. They sometimes re- 

 duce it to meal, but before grinding, roast and crack 

 it by means of heated sand. For this purpose they 

 prefer a kind of maize called curagua^ the grains of 

 which are smaller than the others, and furnish a meal 

 that is more light, whiter and in greater quantity. 

 From this meal, mixed with sugar and water, either 

 hot or cold, they make two different beverages called 

 ulpo and cherchan, 



A species of rye called magu, and of barley called 

 tuca^ were cultivated by the Araucanians before the 

 arrival of the Spaniards ; but since the introduction 

 of the European wheat, the cultivation of these has 

 been entirely neglected, and I have not been able 

 even to procure a specimen, for the purpose of de- 



ral ; it is produced m all parts of the West-Indies, in Peru, in New 

 Spain, in Guatimala, in Chili, and throughout Terra Firma — dcos' 

 ta^s Á^'atural History^ book 4 



