422 
APPENDIX. 
bread, soup, and innumerable ollas, — are present as solid dishes, 
the meats generally being of poor quality. Besides the vege¬ 
tables of Northern gardens, there are chiotes , palm-cabbage, 
and, best of all, plantain. For verduras , or greens, there are 
many plants, — none, however, better than spinach or dande¬ 
lions ; and the ensaladas are not remarkable. In the shore 
region one can have most delicious turtle-steak,.white and ten¬ 
der as veal, iguanas fricasseed, — perhaps the best native dish,— 
javia-steaks, armadillo (which I am sorry to say I have not 
eaten), and fish of many kinds and flavors. 
I have spoken of the bad coffees served as “ esencia,” but 
have not said enough about the chocolate, which I never found 
carelessly prepared. Perhaps the best is prepared entirely at 
home ; that is, the beans of cacao are carefully roasted, as coffee 
might be, and the shells removed by rubbing in the hands. The 
metatle then serves to crush the oily mass, as corn is prepared 
in tortilla-making; sugar is added, and enough cinnamon or 
vanilla to flavor the crushed cacao, which becomes pasty by 
grinding, and may be run into moulds, or simply dropped on 
some cool surface to harden. These chocolate-drops are dis¬ 
solved in boiling milk as wanted, and the whole churned to a 
froth. Prepared in this way, chocolate is much better than the 
cake chocolate of the manufacturers. An ancient recipe was 
much more complicated than this, and although I have never tried 
it myself, I venture to give it to my readers. It is this : “ One 
hundred cacaos, — treating them as has been described, — two 
pods of chilli, a handful of anis and orjevala, two of mesachasil 
or vanilla (this may be replaced by six roses of Alexandria, pow¬ 
dered), two drams of cinnamon, a dozen each of almonds and 
filberts, half a pound of white sugar, and arnotto to color it.” 
This mixture must of course be whipped to a froth. 
Perhaps the people of Guatemala are as cleanly as others; but 
according to our observation the common practice was to allow 
the dogs to lick the dishes, which received no additional washing. 
It was the custom also at the table d’hdte in the hotels to finish 
a meal by filling the mouth with water and spurting it on the 
tiled floor. Once, when we stopped at a way-side house to get 
some coffee, the senora made a little fire out of doors, put the 
coffee in a very black pot to boil, and, after fanning the reluctant 
