File:The Isthmus of Tehuantepec - being the results of a survey for a railroad to connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, made by the scientific commission under the direction of Major J.G. Barnard - with (14573632910).jpg

Identifier: isthmusoftehuant00will (find matches)
Title: The Isthmus of Tehuantepec : being the results of a survey for a railroad to connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, made by the scientific commission under the direction of Major J.G. Barnard ... : with a résumé of the geology, climate, local geography, productive industry, fauna and flora, of that region : illustrated with numerous maps and engravings
Year: 1852 (1850s)
Authors: Williams, John Jay, 1818-1904 Tehuantepec Railroad Company United States Naval Observatory, former owner. DSI
Subjects: Railroads
Publisher: New York : D. Appleton & Company ...
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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under better andbrighter circumstances they would become both useful and in-dustrious. Every man and boy wears a machete, and the facilityand dexterity of its use is not a little surprising. It serves as aweapon for defence, an instrument for killing beef, an axe forcutting wood, and a knife for eating, &c. As axemen, to per-form the grubbing and clearing on the route of the proposedrailroad, their services will be found invaluable. If the habits and manners of the Indians are simple, theirmode of living is not less so; and their freedom from ordinarydiseases is as much due to their abstemiousness as to the salu-brity of the climate. Maize, which is the chief object of culti-vation, is also a prominent article of food. This is manufac-tured by the women into cakes about eight inches in diameter,and of exceeding thinness, the grains being steeped in a weaksolution of lime and water to render them soft and swollen ; afterwhich they are ground into paste on a coarse-grained stone for
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INHABITANTS. 221 the purpose, called a metate. The cake is then beaten with thehand to make it thin, and when seasoned with a little salt, orcolored with the viscous substance of the Achate, laid on a shal-low plate of clay to bake. In this form they are eaten hot, andcalled tortillas. For distant journeys, &c, a more durable spe-cies, baked crisp and dry, called totepostle, and somewhat anal-ogous to sea-biscuit, is frequently made. On feast-days and suchlike occasions, these are sometimes made of the purple grainsof the maize, and enriched by the addition of a few frijoles,Besides this primitive bread, they make from the maize a gruelcalled atole, which, when sweetened with wild honey, or panel®,is an agreeable and salutary food. Next to maize, the vegeta-bles most in use are the cacao and the frvjole ; of the former(especially from a kind called.petaste, which has a full aromaticflavor) they make the delightful beverage of chocolate, whilethe latter, from its richness, serves

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