Page:Pictures of life in Mexico Vol 1.djvu/48

24 would be at daggers' points. Occasionally, too, a customer of a better class would present himself, boasting of a purer flow of Spanish blood in his veins, and wearing an embroidered jacket and red sash, who would play at monte, and solemnly smoke his cigarillo, imbibing strong-spirit, also distilled from the juice of the maguey—called aguardiente.

The fonda, or eating-room and kitchen in one, at the end of the court-yard, was resorted to for meals, both by boarders and casual visitors; and its appearance was almost enough of itself to allay the appetite of a stranger. Fancy a hot, steaming room fitted up with charcoal furnaces, some in use and some in disuse, but all equally sooty; over which, either on griddles or in pans, the cooking was accomplished. Sometimes a mess of stewed mutton would be "on," at others, a thrice cooked turkey; pans of beans were in universal request; and occasionally the tortilla cakes would be devoured with only a "helping" of the odious chilé, or red pepper boiled in lard, to accompany them.

Pepper was, indeed, by far the most predominant ingredient of every dish, excepting the equally abominable mixtures of garlic, onions,