Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/354

346 painted and decorated with flowers, but they can no more hide the nature of their contents than a gin palace or lager-beer saloon. Their vile odor betrays their presence, and about their doors, day and night, may be seen ragged and filthy men and boys, and even women, who drink this beverage until it produces intoxication. Not content with thus perverting the sweet juice, they distil from the mild pulque a strong rum, called mescal, which quickly causes inebriety, and is responsible for much of the crime of Mexico.

Pulque tastes something like stale buttermilk, and has an odor at times like that of putrid meat. It is wholesome, and many people drink it for the sake of their health, but the great majority imbibe it solely for the sake of the pulque. The natives ascribe to pulque, says Mr. Ward, as many good qualities as whiskey is said to possess in Scotland. "They call it stomachic, a great promoter of digestion and sleep, and an excellent remedy in many diseases. It requires a knowledge of all these good qualities, however, to reconcile the stranger to that smell of sour milk or slightly tainted meat by which the young pulque-drinker is usually disgusted; but if this can be surmounted, the liquor will be found both refreshing and wholesome, for its intoxicating qualities are very slight; and, as it is always drunk in a state of fermentation, it possesses, even in the hottest weather, an agreeable coolness. It is found, too, where water is not to be obtained, and even the most fastidious, when travelling under a vertical sun, are then forced to admit its merits."

It is only to be met with in perfection near the places where it is made; for as it is conveyed to the great towns in hog-skins or sheep-skins, the disagreeable odor increases, and the freshness of the liquor is lost.

Aguamiel is a limpid liquor, golden in color, sometimes whitish and mucilaginous, according to the species of the maguey, with a bitter-sweet flavor and of an herbaceous odor, which is produced in an excavation made in the root-stalk of the maguey at the point where the floral peduncle begins to unfold; it froths when shaken, gives an abundant precipitate with sub-acetate of lead, and when filtered the resultant liquor