AmM?y,ri896frm'}        Drink  Plants  of  the  Indians.  265 
DRINK  PLANTS  OF  THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  INDIANS.1/ 
By  V.  Havard. 
These  plants  may  be  considered  under  three  heads  : 
(1)  Those  yielding  alcoholic  liquors. 
(2)  Those  yielding  stimulating,  exhilarating  or  intoxicating  prin- 
ciples other  than  alcohol. 
(3)  Those  furnishing  juices,  or,  by  infusion,  pleasant  beverages 
more  or  less  used  to  quench  thirst.  The  writer  contends  that  the 
American  Indians  north  of  Mexico  had  not  acquired  the  knowledge 
of  preparing  alcoholic  drinks  at  the  time  of  the  landing  of  Columbus. 
In  Mexico,  from  time  immemorial,  the  abundant  sap  of  the  Maguey 
(Agave  Americana)  was  fermented  to  form  the  national  drink,  pulque* 
While  acquainted  with  fermentation,  distillation  was  unknown  to 
the  Aztecs,  this  being  an  art  introduced  from  Europe ;  hence,  the 
Mexican  liquor  mescal,  manufactured  by  distillation  from  baked, 
pounded  and  fermented  heads  of  several  species  of  agave  is  a 
product  of  a  much  later  period.  The  Indians  of  Arizona  and  New 
Mexico  knew  how  to  prepare  "  mescal  beer"  from  the  heads  of 
Agave  Parryi  and  A.  Palmeri. 
From  maize,  both  the  Mexicans  and  the  Peruvians  produced  a 
vinous  liquor  called  chica.  The  cultivation  of  maize  spread  rapidly 
northward,  and  before  the  days  of  Columbus  it  was  the  principal 
crop  of  all  the  agricultural  Indians,  and  it  seems  almost  incompre- 
hensible that  the  primitive  and  very  simple  art  of  making  corn  beer 
should  never  have  found  its  way  north  of  the  Rio  Grande. 
For  several  generations,  the  Apaches  of  Arizona  and  New  Mexico 
have  prepared,  from  corn,  an  alcoholic  drink  which  they  called  tiz- 
win  or  tulpi.  They  probably  obtained  this  knowledge  from  the 
Mexicans  or  Mexican  Indians  toward  the  end  of  the  last  or  begin- 
ning of  this  century. 
From  the  fruit  of  the  Giant  Cactus  (Cereus  giganteus,  Engelm.) 
the  Indians  and  Mexicans  prepare  a  fermented  liquor  having  the 
taste  and  smell  of  sour  beer,  although  somewhat  stronger.  The 
larger  and  sweeter  fruit  of  Cereus  Thurberi,  Engelm.,  of  Sonora  and 
Lower  California,  is  used  for  the  same  purpose.  According  to  Col. 
Cremony,  "  it  is  upon  this  liquor  that  the  Pimos,  Maricopas  and 
1  Abstracted  from  the  Bulletin  of  the  Torrey  Botanical  Club,  February,  1896, 
by  George  M.  Beringer. 
