THE TLACHIQUERO.
"The Indians watch the plants closely when the flower-stalk is expected to appear, and just at the right time they cut out the centre of the stem, leaving a hollow as large over as an ordinary washbowl but a good deal deeper. The sap, which was intended to nourish the flower-stalk, flows into this cavity, and flows so rapidly that it must be emptied every few hours. The leaves on one side of the plant are cut away so that the cavity can be reached, and then the tlachiquero, or collector, makes his rounds.
EXTRACTING AGUAMIEL.
"He is equipped with a gourd open at both ends; inserting the broad end into the cavity, he sucks up the juice (aguamiel), and then deposits it in a pig-skin hanging over his back, or in pig-skins or earthen jars on the back of a donkey.
"The aguamiel is carried to the central station of the establishment, where it is poured into shallow vats of pig or cow skin. There it ferments and becomes pulque, a vile-smelling liquid which is said to taste like stale buttermilk; it is almost always repulsive to the stranger, and sometimes one who comes within smelling distance of pulque for the first time is made ill by it. A good maguey yields from eight to fifteen pints daily, and continues to do so for three or four months; and a good estate of maguey plants is more certain in the revenue it brings to the owner than any other enterprise. The plants thrive in the poorest soil where hardly anything else can live.
"A scientific writer on this subject says: 'An analysis of aguamiel gives glucose, sugar, and water as the principal ingredients; it froths when shaken, gives an abundant precipitate with subacetate of lead, and when filtered the resultant liquor is colorless. Pulque is the product of the fermentation of aguamiel, is an alcoholic, mucilaginous liquid, holding in suspension white corpuscles, which give it its color, and has an odor and taste peculiar to itself. It is more or less sugary according to its strength, and contains about six per cent. of alcohol.'