The gentleman then told a story of a native artist who had painted a canvas some eight feet by six, representing "The Landing of Columbus." Months and months passed and he could not find a purchaser though he lowered his price to half its original figure; then at the advice of a friend he made a few changes in the ships, costumes, coloring, and scenery, and entitled the picture "Evacuation of Mexico by the French." In less than a week he found a customer who made not the least objection to the price which was set upon the work.
The mention of pulquerias naturally drew attention to those establishments, which abound in Mexico as do beer shops in New York. Fred undertook an essay concerning them and the substance in which they deal.
"Pulque is the product of the Agave Mexicana, or maguey plant," wrote the youth, "and a description of Mexico without a reference to it would be like 'Hamlet' without Hamlet. It is the beverage of Mexico as beer is that of Germany and wine the drink of France. Along the line of the railway, as we were coming southward, we passed many fields of maguey, and several times we saw the collectors gathering the juice of the plant for conversion into pulque.
"Nobody knows when pulque was invented, as it was in use here centuries before Cortez was born. There are many fables concerning it, and like most fables of the kind, the discovery of the use which could be made of the juice of the maguey is generally attributed to the gods. One more practicable fable is that a Toltec noble discovered it and sent some of the pulque to the King, by the hand of his daughter, Xochitl. The King was so delighted with the drink and the maiden that he swallowed the former and married the latter, and their son succeeded him as king. This was the beginning of the downfall of the Toltecs and their extinction as a nation, but the art of making pulque was not lost; the name of the lovely Xochitl has been preserved in the Aztec name of the beverage, ochtl. During our war with Mexico the soldiers under Generals Taylor and Scott drank the liquid, and in attempting to pronounce its Aztec name they generally got no nearer to it than 'cocktail.' They carried the word back to the States, and Doctor Bronson tells us that it is occasionally heard there at this day in clubs and hotels, where it is applied to beverages in which spirits, bitters, and other ingredients are mingled.
MAGUEY PLANT.
"The maguey belongs to the cactus family of plants, and there are said to be forty varieties of it. Twenty-two yield aguamiel, or honey-water, from which pulque is made, and the others are used for hedges and for making paper, cords, and other things. In former times the natives are said to have had not less than a hundred uses for the maguey plant in addition to its production of pulque. They made paper from the pulp of the leaves, cords and thread from the fibre, needles from the thorns, shingles and troughs from the leaves, and the little clothing they wore was generally made from the thread derived from the maguey. The leaves are sometimes ten feet long by a foot wide, and like the leaves of the other members of the cactus family, they are of great thickness.
"When the maguey plant is about ten years old it sends up a single stalk in the centre which often rises to a height of twenty-five or thirty feet. This stalk is covered with flowers, hundreds and sometimes thousands of them, and they are of a yellowish green color. After blossoming the plant dies, very much as does the sago-tree and some other tropical growths; a single blossoming is all that it is capable of in its lifetime. And here is where the pulque comes in, or, rather, comes out.