Page:Here and there in Yucatan - miscellanies (IA herethereinyucat00lepl 0).djvu/158

 audible are very few, and as the darkness is complete, one cannot know whence they proceed. It is, however, a fact that those who attend such meetings always distinguish the supposed spirits by some particular way of speaking or some favorite expressions, no two voices being alike; and they address those present by their right name before it is revealed.

It is a remarkable fact that in Yucatan, also, the Indians hide themselves at night, to perform ceremonies similar to those that take place in Brazil. Instead of rum they use a drink called balché, which they say is the beverage of the gods. It is made by soaking the bark of a tree called balché in honey and water that is allowed to ferment. This same liquor is used in equatorial Africa, and when long kept becomes very intoxicating.