Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/61

Rh with a wide brick-paved verandah: this is the lounging place. Adjoining is a brick- walled tank, thirty-five feet long and fifteen broad, filled with water kept fresh by constant running; this is the proprietor's bathing place. It is shaded by the palm trees and banana plants, and the coolness makes it a delightful resort at morning and evening in this fervid climate. There is no "fruit season" here; it is fruit all the year around. The cocoanut is never eaten here as with us. The nuts are picked when just two-thirds grown and while the fluid inside is as clear and limpid as the finest spring water. This is called "Agua de Cocoa" and is a favorite and very healthy and palatable beverage. The Indian servants who attend to the garden, had many of the cocoanuts already prepared with one end chipped off with a machete, to allow the water to be turned out as from a jug, and as we took seats in the verandah they served it around in large glasses. When the water is turned out there remains a white mucilaginous substance like thin custard, which is scraped out and eaten with a slip of the green husk for a spoon. It is highly flavored but not agreeable to the uninitiated.

From these gardens, fruit is sold to all who desire it. Cocoanuts are sold for twenty-five cents per dozen at retail, bananas for twelve and a half to fifteen cents a bunch of one hundred or more, and other fruit in proportion. One hundred square yards of ground in bananas, will afford sustenance for an entire family the year round; why then should people kill themselves with hard work? Señor Huarte paid $2,000 for the garden, and expended $2,000 more in building the house and bath, or $4,000 in all. He thinks that the income from this garden may be two per cent per month