Page:About Mexico - Past and Present.djvu/350

342 One of the most common plants is the maguey (Agave Americana). This grows wild everywhere and is useful to its last particle. It furnishes thread, needles, cord, ropes, thatch and paper, and also bears a palatable fruit when its blossoms are allowed to come to perfection. Its chief commercial value is in its sap, out of which pulque, the national beverage, is made. The agave matures very slowly, needing about ten years of growth to become productive. The Indians who have watched it know to a day when the blossom will be ready for the knife. The whole heart of the plant is then cut out, leaving nothing but the stiff outside circle of leaves. Into the deep cavity thus left oozes the sap, which is carefully dipped out two or three times each day. The basin of the wounded plant will hold a pailful of the sweet honey-water. When this ferments, as it does in twenty-four hours, it becomes pulque (pronounced pool-hay). The sap from one plant will often run in this way for three months. The plant then dies, and others spring up from its roots, to run the same course.

Pulque is produced in large quantities about Puebla and the capital. When ready for use, this beverage has a taste which is a cross between sour milk and slightly-tainted beef; it is seldom palatable on first acquaintance, but a relish for it is soon acquired, and drunkenness from its excessive use is common. The Indians are its natural victims. Humboldt says that in his day "the police in Mexico sent around tumbrels to collect the drunkards to be found stretched out in the streets. These Indians are carried to the principal guard-house. In the morning an iron ring is put on their ankles, and they are made to sweep the streets for three days."

Mexico has well been called an "agricultural cosmos;"