AGRICULTURE
Of all the arts practiced by the Indian, agriculture is by far the most important; indeed the greater part of his time and labor are devoted to the milpa (kol), or corn plantation, which affords him his principal means of livelihood, for if the corn crop fails he knows that actual starvation will menace his family until the next crop is gathered. The virgin bush, in which the milpa is made, is cut down about December or January, only the large and hardwood trees being left standing. This is the most arduous part of the work, and the neighbors often assist in it, being helped in turn when making their own milpas. The bush is allowed to dry until the end of May (the dry season lasting from January to May), when it is burned off. After the burnt area has been cooled by the first shower of rain it is planted in corn (ixim). This is a simple operation, two or three men going over the ground, each with a bag of corn and a sharp-pointed stick, making small holes at fairly regular intervals, into each of which they drop a few grains of corn, and then cover them with earth. About October the corn begins to ripen, whereupon each stalk is bent about a foot below the ear and allowed to hang down for several days in order that rain may not gain entrance and spoil the grain in the final stages of ripening. During this period the owner spends nearly all his time in the milpa, sleeping there in a little palm-leaf shack at night, since many animals, as deer and wild hogs, are very fond of corn, which is subject to raids also by neighboring Indians and by tame pigs from the village. When the corn is ripe, it is stored, still in the husk, upon a low platform, in a small house specially built for the purpose, often, in order to avoid transportation, situated within the milpa. It is shelled as required for use, the surplus from that eaten by the family and stock being exchanged at the nearest village for cash or for cotton cloth, rum, iron cooking pots, ammunition, and other luxuries. The shelling is done by rubbing the husked ear against a rough flat surface, made by binding a number of corncobs (bacal) together into a circle with liana. Many fruits and vegetables besides corn are grown in the milpa, including yams (xaci macal), camote (īs), pumpkins (kuum), squashes (xka), tomatoes (paak), plantains (haz), colalu (xterkoch), aguacate (on), plums (abal), oranges (pakaal), siricote (kopte), sapodillas (ya), mamai (chacal haz), okra, garden egg, melon, breadfruit, sweet lime, pineapple, and a variety of others.
PROCURING FOOD; COOKING
Both men and women take for the first meal of the day a hot thick drink known as posol, made from ground corn and water, often flavored with honey; later they eat tortillas, beans, and chili pepper, accompanied with a cold drink made from corn. In the evening they make their principal repast, which includes game, pork, fish, or eggs, with beans and other vegetables, plenty of chili pepper, and either chocolate or some hot drink made from corn. They use a great variety of drinks concocted of ground maize and water, including chocosacan, a solution of the masa from which tortillas are made, in water, flavored with a little salt; pinol, a solution of ground toasted corn seasoned with pimento and other spices; posol, boiled corn ground to a paste and mixed with hot water; sachà, very much like posol, but the corn is not cooked soft, so that the beverage is gritty; and, lastly, atol, which is chocosacan boiled till the mixture becomes thick and glutinous.
Tortillas, or corn cake, sometimes eaten hot, sometimes cold, and at times toasted, are the Indian's chief mainstay in the way of food, as they appear at every meal, and at a pinch he can exist on them alone for a very long period. Tortillas are made in the following way: The grain is first soaked overnight in a lye of wood ashes, treatment which softens the grain and loosens the outer husk. The softened grain is next ground into a fine paste on an oblong stone, slightly concave, known as a metate (ka), by means of a stone rolling pin thicker in the middle than at the ends, designated as a brazo (u kabka). This procedure takes considerable time, as the grain has to be ground a number of times in order to get the paste to the required degree of fineness. When the paste or masa is ready it is flattened by hand into small round cakes (tortillas), which are baked on an iron or earthen plaque (xamach) over a glowing wood fire.
The hunters are experts at barbecuing (macan) the carcasses of various birds and animals, chiefly deer, peccary, wild turkey, and curassow, as they often get a large supply of game when several days' journey from the village, which, unless preserved in some way, would quickly spoil. The carcasses are cut into joints; the birds plucked, cleaned, and split open; and the meat thus prepared is hung in a small palm-leaf shack rendered as nearly airtight as possible, upon the floor of which is kindled a fire of damp cedar chips. These give off some heat and great quantities of aromatic smoke, so that in about 24 hours the meat is sufficiently cured to last for several weeks. Meat prepared in this way is considered a great delicacy. If it is wished to preserve the meat for longer periods the process is prolonged and salt may be rubbed in. Strips of meat and carcasses of birds may sometimes be seen hanging from the rafters over the fire in the kitchen so desiccated, hard, and blackened that it would appear impossible to eat them; but after months of drying this meat, when soaked in warm water for 24 hours, is not unpalatable. The Indians wash their hands before and after eating, a very necessary practice, as they eat exclusively with their fingers, using the tortillas to scoop up gravy, beans, and other mushy foodstuffs. They eat at small round tables about 16 inches high, sitting, or rather squatting, around them on little blocks of wood 4 to 5 inches high. They are very fond of salt, which among the coast Indians is obtained by evaporating sea water, among the inland villages by trade from Yucatan and Guatemala. Since this supply has been almost cut off, owing to the troubles with Mexico, the Indians frequently use for salt the ashes obtained by burning botan tops. Men and women do not eat together, as the women are preparing relays of hot tortillas for the men while the meal lasts. Their food and mode of eating is well described by Landa (chap. XXI, p. 120):
Que por la mañana toman la bebida caliente con pimienta, como esta dicho y entre dia las otras frias, y a la noche los guisados. Y que si no ay carne hazen sus salsas de la pimienta y legumbres. Que no acostumbravan comer los hombres con las mugeres, y que ellos comian por si en el suelo, o quando mucho sobre una serilla por mesa: y que comen bien quando lo tienen, y quando no, sufren muy bien la hambre y passan con muy poco. Y que se lavan las manos y la boca despues de comer.
Indeed, the foregoing description would apply almost as well to Indians of the more remote villages of the present day as to those of the time immediately after the conquest. In localities where they have come in contact with more civilized communities their menu has been considerably enlarged by the introduction of imported foodstuffs, while their methods of eating have been changed by the introduction of knives, forks, and spoons. The native methods of cooking are very primitive. Three large flat stones so placed as to form an equilateral triangle, known as koben, form the only fireplace; in this is kindled the fire of sticks or split logs, over which is placed the earthenware or iron cooking pots or plaque for baking tortillas, resting on the stones. Fire (kaak) is usually obtained through the use of matches among the Indians of British Honduras. Hunters and others who spend a great part of their time in the bush employ flint and steel. Among the Indians in the remote villages fire is still made by swiftly rotating a sharp-pointed shaft of some hardwood (usually dogwood) in a hole made in a small slab of very light dry wood (commonly gumbo limbo). There is no chimney to the kitchen, the smoke finding its way out as best it can through the doors and crevices in the walls; consequently the whole of the interior, with its permanent furnishings, is colored a fine rich brown.