In Indian Mexico (1908) by Frederick Starr
page 68 of 446 (15%)
page 68 of 446 (15%)
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bins, the sides would have been removed piecemeal to keep progress with
the diminishing hoard. When the time of planting should be near, the whole structure but the floor and upright poles would have disappeared. Next to maize the chief culture among the Otomis is _maguéy_. This forms division lines between the corn-fields and the village yards, and is sometimes, though not commonly here, planted in fields. The _maguéy_ is an agave very close to the century-plant. Manifold are its uses, but to the Otomi its value is chiefly in two directions. It furnishes _ixtli_ fibre for _ayates_, and it yields _pulque_. For a dozen years the _maguéy_ plant stores away starchy food in its long, thick, sharp-pointed leaves. It is the intended nourishment for a great shaft of flowers. Finally, the flower-bud forms amid the cluster of leaves. Left to itself the plant now sends all its reserve of food into this bud, and the great flower-stalk shoots upward at the rate of several inches daily; then the great pyramid of flowers develops. But man interferes. The flower-bud is cut out, and a neat, deep cup is fashioned amid the bases of the cluster of leaves. The sap which should produce that wonderful growth is poured into this cup. The _pulque_ gatherer, with his long gourd collecting-tube, and skin carrying-bottle, goes from plant to plant and gathers the _agua miel_--honey-water. Fermented, it becomes the whitish, dirty, ropy, sour-tasting, bad-smelling stuff so dear to the indians. And the Otomi are fond of _pulque_. We were compelled to do our work in the mornings; in the afternoons everyone was drunk and limp and useless in the operator's hands. We slept and ate at the house of the _presidente_, an old _mestizo_ of rather forbidding manners but kindly spirit. Our cases came rather slowly and a deal of coaxing, argument, and bribes were necessary to secure them. Here we gave a trifle, a few _centavos_, to each subject. |
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