Note 682 — Chapter V · NEW MEXICANS.

'The metate is a slightly hollowed hard stone, upon which soaked maize is laid and then reduced to paste.... The paste so formed is then patted between the hands until it assumes a flat, thin and round appearance when it is laid on a hot pan and baked into a tortilla.' Cremony's Apaches, pp. 145-6. 'Ils récoltent aussi en abondance le maïs dont ils font de tortillas.' Soc. Géog., Bulletin, série v., No. 96, p. 186. 'Their meat was boiled with water in a Tusquin (clay kettle) and this meat-mush or soup was the staple of food among them.' Stratton's Capt. Oatman Girls, pp. 114, 115. 'A large Echino Cactus ... hollowed so as to make a trough. Into this were thrown the soft portions of the pulpy substance which surrounds the heart of the cactus; and to them had been added game and plants gathered from the banks of the creek. Mingled with water, the whole had been cooked by stirring it up with heated stones.' Whipple, in Pac. R. R. Rept., vol. iii., p. 96. 'Ils mangent des pains de maïs cuits sous la cendre, aussi gros que les gros pains de Castille.' Castañeda, in Ternaux-Compans, Voy., série i., tom. ix., p. 49; Hardy's Trav., p. 238; Pattie's Pers. Nar., p. 63; Bartlett's Pers. Nar., vol. i., p. 291; Castaño de Soza, in Pacheco, Col. Doc. Inéd., tom. iv., pp. 330-1.