In the gardens of that sunny region vineclad arbors are furnished with seats, where the family with their visitors will sit in the cool of the evening, each one supplied with a bombilla and a cocoa-nut or calabash bowl of mate. Through a small opening in the top of the vessel the tube is inserted and the grateful infusion is enjoyed while matters of interest are discussed.
Great virtues are ascribed to this drink. Its properties appear to be chiefly due to theine and caffeine.
In Chili and Peru it is in universal use, and is considered more necessary than meat. On the plains of Argentina the gaucho or cowboy washes down his dried beef with copious draughts of mate and is content with his meal. To northerners the taste is not agreeable. It seems weedy and slightly bitter. For shipment the leaves, when dried, are packed in oblong cases or bags made of rawhide carefully sewed. These packages contain 120 pounds each. Since the beginning of the seventeenth century this drink has been used in Paraguay, and its use now extends all over South America. It is estimated that the amount used annually exceeds 60,000,000 pounds.
It is being introduced into other countries and the time may come when the bombilla and the bowl of mate may become a rival of five o’clock tea in English and American parlors.
Anna Rosalie Henderson.
Behind the cloud the starlight lurks,
Through showers the sunbeams fall;
For God, who loveth all his works,
Has left his Hope with all!