MIXTURE OF RACES IN CENTRAL AMERICA. To show how difficult the study of race peculiarities must be in a country where there is so much amalgamation, I give a list of the names of some of the crosses: GUATEMALTECAN COOKERY. I do not speak of the tables of the upper classes, where variety is found in Guatemala as well as elsewhere; but of the common cookery that a stranger finds in travelling, it may truly be said. that it has not a national character, nor does justice to the abundant material at hand. What there is of it is, however, good; a fresh tortilla is better than the cakes of the Northern backwoods, and the wheaten bread made by the panadero of the village is exceedingly palatable. Frijoles, or beans, the most popular general dish, are always stewed over an open fire, and are much better than the baked beans of New England. Eggs are always present, either fried, poached, or baked in the shell (huevos tibios); when fried, always seasoned with tomato, chillis, and vinegar. Salchichas, or sausages, fried in lard, with plenty of garlic; gigote, or hashed meat; higate, a potage made of figs, pork, fowl, sugar, ginger, cinnamon and allspice, bread, soup, and innumerable ollas, are present as solid dishes, the meats generally being of poor quality. Besides the vegetables 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 dandelions; and the ensaladas are not remarkable. In the shore region one can have most delicious turtle-steak, white and tender 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 dissolved 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, powdered), 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'hôte 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 señora made a little fire out of doors, put the coffee in a very black pot to boil, and, after fanning the reluctant fire with her straw hat, threw herself on the ground near by to rest and smoke her puro. When the pot was near to boiling, she reached out her bare leg and tested the temperature of the contents with her toe, as a Northern cook might have used his finger. Frank was scandalized; but, after all, it was merely a matter of taste. PHOTOGRAPHS USED IN ILLUSTRATION. In stating that the scenes illustrated in this book are all from photographs, it may be added that the clearness of the atmosphere enables a distant view to be taken with great distinctness (unfortunately lost in the mechanical reproductions) even in minute details. The lens used for views not requiring extreme rapidity was the Dallmeyer single landscape,—a lens unsurpassed for its purpose; while for architectural subjects, or those in motion, a Ross rapid rectilinear was generally used. The plates were those prepared by Allen & Rowell, of Boston,as usual, of the finest quality. For apparatus, the camera was a 58 size of the American Optical Company's make, fitted with a changing box containing eighteen plates, and also with an attachment, arranged by the author, for making two or three smaller pictures on the 5 × 8 plate. I carried no tent, but changed my plates at night under a blanket, depending on touch rather than sight. For the stereoscopic pictures, I used a pair of Euryscope No. 0 lenses. The plates were developed months afterwards, with a very small percentage of failures. In later journeys in Guatemala I have used plates of the 8 × 10 size; but for all purposes of illustration the 4 X 5 size is to be preferred. For packing the plates I have used a strong barrel and cork-dust with complete success. It is a matter of deep regret that the method of mechanical reproduction utterly destroys all the beauty of the original photographs. In cases where phototypes are presented from ink-drawings, these have generally been drawn directly from a transparency which I have made from the original negative and projected in the lantern. The drawings are of large size, and reduced to one quarter, or even less, in the phototype. This method insures at least accuracy of outline. MONEY IN GUATEMALA. Persons interested in silver coinage might have a good field for collection here; and one of the Government collectors, who had a fancy for numismatics, showed me a curious lot he had received in payment of taxes. Maximilian coins from Mexico were the rarest; but every country of Central and South America was well represented. Among current coins the dollar of Peru and Chili (sols) are most common; and the smaller change. is mainly in Guatemalan and Hondureñan currency. The dollar (peso, piece of eight) contains eight reals, and the real two medios, or four cuartillos. This last is the smallest coin used, although the cent (centavo) has been coined. A real is twelve and a half cents, a medio six and a quarter, and a cuartillo three and an eighth; but in the text I have spoken of these coins as valued in gold, or, approximately, ten, five, and three cents. I find it impossible to reconcile some of these measurements of the French Expedition with my own or those of other observers; but usually the difference is not greater than might be expected from observations with the aneroid barometer. WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. Land is usually bought and sold by caballerias (33.33 acres), hectareas (2.47 acres), manzanas (a square of one hundred yards), or varas (2.78 feet). The most common weights are the quintal (a hundredweight) and the arroba (25 pounds of 16 ounces each). Among the Indios other weights and measures are used, but I could find no trustworthy information about them. They also retain the old cacao currency to some extent, and I have been offered cacao-beans for small change, as the cuartillo is not common away from the large cities. A LIST OF PLANTS OBSERVED IN GUATEMALA. I am indebted to my friend Professor Sereno Watson, of Harvard, for the identification of species, which to the number of sixty he has already determined from some five hundred that he collected in the Departments of Livingston and Izabal. I did not myself make any collection, but noted the genera that were familiar to me as I travelled through the country. So little has been published about the Guatemaltecan Flora that I have ventured to add these notes to Professor Watson's list. Clematis americana, Will. Near Izabal. | Doliocarpus pubens, Mart. Livingston. dioica, L. Panajachel. Curatella americana, L. Dry hills near caripensis, HBK. Sacapulas, Ju- polycephala, Bert. V. de Agua. sericea, HBK. San José. Davilla rugosa, Poir. Banks of Rio Quirigua. Tetracera n. sp. Rio Chocon. muricata, L. Cunen, Uspantán. |