1892 Drinks of the world

DRIXKS.

201

donqua, or .^^//^— commonly brewed from wheat, millet or barley, mixed with a bitter herb called geso. According- to Bruce, Abyssinian beer of an inferior kind is made from tocusso. This is really a variety of bouza, which is also made from teff, the poa abyssinica of botanists.

America.

Persimon beer, from the fruit of the date plum {Diospyros Virginiana)y is drunk in North America. In South America, long before the Spanish conquest, the Indians prepared and drank a beer obtained from Indian corn, called ckica or maize beer. The process followed in making chica is very similar to that of beer brewing in Britain. The maize is moistened with water, allowed partially to germinate and dried in the sun. The maize malt so prepared is bruised, treated with warm water, and allowed to ferment. The liquor is yellow, and has an acid taste something like cider. It is in common demand on the west coast. In the valleys of the Sierra the maize malt is subjected to human mastication, not invariably by the young and beautiful girls, but by old ladies and gentlemen who still retain, by the indulgence of nature, the requisite dental arrangement. The saliva mixed with the chewed morsel is supposed to produce a more excellent ckica. Indeed, the result is so choice tfiat this kind is commonly called Peruvian nectar. Chica, can also be made from barley, rice, peas, grapes, pine-apples, and manioc. The Brazilians have