1892 Drinks of the world

DRINKS.

277

which we see a lady using the dombilla, zhhou^ the Mats cup has an apartador. The silver kettle for supplying hot water is fed with charcoal at the side, and somewhat resembles the Russian Samovar. We give a modern Mat^ cup and bombilla ; but this, which is made wholly of silver, is only intended for one person's use. Sometimes the MaU cups are made of the gourds of the Cuca {Crescentia Cujete) or Caba^o {Cucurbita lagenaria) silver mounted. Indeed, the cup itself is the Matd, which gives the name to the Herb, meaning, in the language of the Incas, a calabash. The decoc- tion is drank with a little brown sugar or lemon added, never with milk, and if not drank very quickly will turn quite black. It loses in flavour and aroma by keeping, so that in England it cannot possibly be drunk in perfection, which, of course, can only be done on the spot where it is produced. Its virtues are much vaunted. It is supposed to give nervous vigour, and to enable the system to resist fatigue ; but this can scarcely account for the enormous quantity drunk, although to persons unused to it, when taken in large doses it is both pur- gative and emetic. Like Chinese tea, it has a volatile oil, which gives 6 per cent of an astringent acid, resembling tannin, which causes the infusion to turn black after a slight exposure to the air. There is another variety of Matd, called Gongonka, which is drunk in Brazil, which is prepared from two it its peculiar aroma ; it also contains nearly 2 per cent, of theine, and about 1