"Are there other kinds of pepper?" asked some one.
"Oh, yes," said Pepper, "there is White Pepper, and Red, or Cayenne Pepper. Some of my friends were made into White Pepper. They were soaked in limewater for about two weeks, and this, of course, softened and wrinkled their hulls which had always fitted so nicely. This was bad enough, but it was not the worst."
"What happened next?" said several voices.
"They were then," continued Pepper, "trodden under the bare feet of dark-skinned men, and this rubbed off their hulls completely. After this they were ground as we had been.
"Cayenne Pepper is not a member of our family at all, although it has the same name. I have looked up its genealogy, and I find that it received its name from the city of Cayenne, in French Guiana, near which it grows. It is in the form of bell-shaped pods, and grows on low, bushy plants instead of vines.
"The pods are green at first, but red when ripe. No doubt you have seen strings of them hanging in the grocery store when you were on the shelves. People sometimes use the pods as they are, but usually they are dried, ground, mixed with yeast, and baked into flat cakes like crackers. When these cakes are ground, Red, or Cayenne Pepper, is produced. It is put up in little boxes just as we are.
"Pepper used to be regarded as a great luxury," the speaker went on. "Until the eighteenth century the Portuguese handled almost all of it. It was not uncommon for rents to be paid with pepper. If any of you have read ancient history, you know that when Alaric took Rome he demanded, among other things, one thousand pounds of pepper as a ransom.
"My home was in the East Indies," said Pepper, "but there are members of our family living in the Philippines, India, Mexico, the West Indies, and other tropical countries."
"Your story is a very interesting one," said a voice, "and now, if you care to hear it, I will tell something of my life."
"Yes, do tell us," said several at once.