If
You Tell The Housewife You Do Not Smoke She Will Stare At You In
Gaping Wonder.
Their children use the weed, and I have seen a mother
urge her three-year-old boy to whiff at a cigarette.
Bound each dwelling is a ramada, where grapes in their season hang
in luxuriant clusters; and each has its own garden, where palms,
peaches, figs, oranges, limes, sweet potatoes, tobacco, nuts, garlic,
etc., grow luxuriantly. The garden is surrounded by a hedge of cacti
or other kindred plants. The prickly pear tree of that family is one
of the strangest I have seen. On the leaves, which are an inch or
more in thickness, grows the fruit, and I have counted as many as
thirteen pears growing on a single leaf. When ripe they are a deep
red color, and very sweet to the taste. The skin is thick, and
covered with innumerable minute prickles. It is, I believe, a most
refreshing and healthful food.
Meat is very cheap. A fine leg of mutton may be bought for the
equivalent of twelve cents, and good beef at four cents a pound.
Their favorite wine, Lagrimas de San Juan (Tears of Holy John), can
be bought for ten cents a quart.
All cooking is done on braziers - a species of three-legged iron
bucket in which the charcoal fire is kindled. On this the little
kettle, filled from the well in the patio, is boiled for the
inevitable mate. About this herb I picked up, from various sources,
some interesting information.
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