the origin of which is unknown, when it suffers severely from certain
noxious insects. [77] It is also attacked by rats and other predatory
vermin; the former sometimes falling upon it in such numbers that
they destroy the entire harvest in a single night. Travellers in
America say that a well-kept cacao plantation is a very picturesque
sight. In the Philippines, however, or at any rate in East Luzon,
the closely-packed, lifeless-looking, moss-covered trees present a
dreary spectacle. Their existence is a brief one. Their oval leaves,
sometimes nearly a foot long, droop singly from the twigs, and form
no luxuriant masses of foliage. Their blossoms are very insignificant;
they are of a reddish-yellow, no larger than the flowers of the lime,
and grow separately on long weedy stalks. The fruit ripens in six
months. When it is matured, it is of either a red or a yellow tint,
and is somewhat like a very rough gherkin. Only two varieties appear to
be cultivated in the Philippines. [78] The pulp of the fruit is white,
tender, and of an agreeable acid taste, and contains from eighteen
to twenty-four kernels, arranged in five rows. These kernels are as
large as almonds, and, like them, consist of a couple of husks and a
small core. This is the cacao bean; which, roasted and finely ground,
produces cacao, and with the addition of sugar, and generally of
spice, makes chocolate. Till the last few years, every household
in the Philippines made its own chocolate, of nothing but cacao
and sugar. The natives who eat chocolate often add roasted rice to
it. Nowadays there is a manufactory in Manila, which makes chocolate
in the European way. The inhabitants of the eastern provinces are
very fond of adding roasted pili nuts to their chocolate. [79]

[Chocolate.] Europeans first learnt to make a drink from cacao in
Mexico, where the preparation was called chocolatl. [80] Even so far
back as the days of Cortes, who was a tremendous chocolate drinker,