Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 209, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 September 1914 — PULQUE-NATIONAL DRINK of MEXICO [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

PULQUE-NATIONAL DRINK of MEXICO

Know you not that pulque , I Is a liquor divine. And that angels In heaven Prefer It to wine ’ 0 SING the Mexicans of (V* thpir national drink, a y\ beverage jvhose history dates from the earliest times, yet to which the millions of modem Mexico swear as faithful allegiance as did the ancient s Toltec nearly a thousand years ago. From the Plains of Apam and other pulque-producing districts adjacent, oyer one hundred carloads of this alleged diVine liquor are rushed each day to the pulquerlas of the City of Mexico to satisfy the thirst of the natives, who spend a total of more than SIO,OOO a day for the beverage.

Dally trips are necessary because pulque will not keep any length of time. In 24 hours it loses every trace of its former divinity and becomes a nauseating mess that smells to high heaven;

Pulque is a fermented liquor containing about 6 per cent alcohol. It is made from the cap of certain kinds of maguey. In the United States we call it the “Century plant,” because of the saying that it blooms only once in a hundred years. In Mexico, however, the pulque-producing maguey comes to full maturity in from seven to ten years. The growing of maguey for the manufacture of pulque is one of the most important and profitable industries in Mexico. The maguey is a variety of cactusS of which 33 kinds are given the general name of maguey. They thrive on the Mexican plateau, and, if we except cigarettes, represent about all that the average Mexican cares for in life. , Into a maguey field he may go hungry and naked. From the edges of the leaves he can procure a thornlike needle, to which is attached a strong thread; while from the leaf itself he gets the material to make the cloth for a suit of clothes. He builds a house and shingles it with the dried leaves. The fiber of the leaves he twists into ropes and the xopes into mats for making beds and chairs. He builds a fire. with the dried stalks and cooks the dried roots for food. What he does not need he sells to the vinegar factory, or the mo-, lasses mill, or the paper works, for many pesos, .which enable him to marry. Then, having clothed himself and built and furnished a house and satisfied his hunger and filled his pockets with money and' married a wife, he takes the sap which has collected in the stump of his old maguey, ferments it into pulque, and proceeds- to celebrate his prosperity by getting * gloriously drunk!

What more could sinful mortal ask? And the Mexican may have all that from the humble maguey. On the Plains of Apam, near the city of Mexico, the maguey Is said to attain Its greatest perfection. There, on the, great plantations, the huge, spiky, greenish-gray'plants, looking for all the world like monster artichokes, stretch away in symmetrical rows for miles and miles. There are no fences of any kind and the scend is unbroken save for an occasional hacienda, with its fort-like walls and towers. Millions of dollars are invested iri the pulque business. The man who goes into it must either buy a mar tured plantation, which costs a princely sum, or purchase many acres of land, secure young shoots from some old field, and then wait from seven to ten years for the plants to produce. True, if the soil be fertile, the hardy maguey needs little or no care meanwhile. When ready to produce, each plant is valued at from ten to twelve dollars.

Comes flowering time, and from the center of the cluster of great fibrous leaves, some ten feet long a foot Wide and almost as thick at the base, maguey sends up a giant flower-stalk. This stalk grows rapidly to a height of from twenty to thirty feet If allowed to flower, it bursts Into bloom with magical suddenness, several thousand greenish-yellow flowers appearing almost at once on the stalk, after which the plant dies. It is during the flowering time that the tlachlqueros, or pulque harvesters, with their gourd pipettes and pigskin receptacles, may be seen scattered throughout the fields and watching with alert eyes; for it Is their duty to tap the plant just before the stalk bursts into bloom. At the rigjit instant, which only the experienced harvesters know, the flower stem is cut off short and the heart

of the remaining stump is hollowed out to form a basin as wide as a washbowl and from one to two feet deep. Into this basin flows the sap that nature intended should give life and beauty to the flowers.

The tlachiquero thrusts one end of his gourd pipette into the liquid, now called aguamlel, or honey-water. With' his mouth he draws on the other end and the honey-water is sucked into the gourd. Then it is emptied into the pigskin, which the harvester carries slung across his shoulders. The aguamlel is pleasantly sweet, golden in color, and not disagreeable to the smell. Two or three times a day the liquid must be drawn oft The average maguey will yield from ten to fifteen pints dally for two or three months; and then it dies. From plant to plant the harvester goes until the pigskin is filled. Then, with much grunting, he. shifts the bulging pigskin to an easier position, and, with the four pig-legs stuck out in ludicrous positions, tfie Mexican shuffles away to where his mule waits with two stone jars or tin cans slung across his back. He empties the pigskin into the cans and when they are full be takes the mule and its burden of aguamlel to the fermenting room.

There the honey-water is emptied into vats. A portion of the sap has already been gathered and allowed to fermjent»for about ten days, i? is now called madre-pulque, and <is used as a yeast to hasten the fermentation of the fresh sap. A little of the mother-pulque is added to the sweet aguamieL Fermentation begins almost instantly and goes on rapidly. In 24 hours the honey-wa-ter id converted into finished pulque, ready for the market The finished pulque is whitish in color, but otherwise is unlike anything else under the'sun. It has a taste and odor decidedly its own. The taste, to the Americans, is indescribable, but reminds one of spoiled buttermilk, only sweeter. The odor is very much like that of ancient eggs. The Mexicans claim that pulque isgood for the stomach, and they gulp down great quantities with, gusto. Americans do not readily learn to like it. By holding one's nostrils very tightly closed, it is possible to get some of the stuff down; but quite often, when the nostrils are released, the pulque comes back up.

The finished pulque is quickly run into large casks and loaded on to trains. There are a number of long trains, carrying nothing but pulque, that wind their way out of the maguey plantations each morning and hasten into the City of Mexico, where the liquor is quickly transferred to the pulquerias. " .

These pulquerlas are not at all difficult to find. Over the front door there is usually strung a lot of varicolored tissue paper, reminding one of carnival days back in the states. Where the tissue paper is missing, the odor of the pulque serves as an unfailing guide.

And, after all, pulque may be said to be the drink of the masses. Its cheapness makes it so. You can lean out of the car window in almost any city or village in central Mexico and buy 4 a drink of pulque for a penny. From three to five cents will buy a quart The bottled pulque, which is said to be really excellent and has, occasionally been indorsed by physicians, costs a trifle more. 5

At times the Mexican desires a stronger drink than pulque. Then he may drink tequila, also made from the maguey, but of a different variety. This is a fiery liquor that is distilled from the roots of the plant In the state of Jalisco, on the slopes of the mountain called El Cerro de Tequila,

the tequila Industry has reached its highest development, and' millions of pesos worth of the liquor is shipped out annually.

Or the man with a thirst may have mescal, a fiery, colorless liquor, which is also distilled from the maguey. Both tequila and mescal are harmless-ap-pearing drinks, but they have a "kick” like an army mule. A Mexican peon who, when sober, may be frightened at the sight of a horned toad, usually feels, when drunk on tequila or mescal and armed with a machete or knife, equal to slaughtering all the rest of Mexico and occasionally starts out to do so.

Notwithstanding the popularity of mescal, tequila, aguardiente, rum, wine and beer, and in spite of the fact that Mexico imports each year over $6,000,000 worth of liquors, much of which is champagne for the gilded youth of the cities, the consumption of the "divine” pulque goes on unabated. As far back as 1625 efforts were made to stop its manufacture and sale. Edict after edict was issued against pulque, but each one seemed only to irritate the masses and literally “drive them to drink” —more pulque.

When was pulque first made? Qulen sabe? There is a tradition that about a thousand years ago, when the warlike Toltecs- held sway in Mexico, a certain man one day discovered a field mouse gnawing at the flowerstalk of a growing maguey. After frightening the mouse away, hi* attention was attracted to the golden fluid which quickly filled the hole the mouse had made. He tasted it and found it gobd. A large quantity of the honey-water was gathered and the man’s beautiful daughter was sent at once to carry the golden liquor to Tepancaltzin, then king of the Toltecs.

By the time the girl arrived at the king’s palace the fluid had fermented and was what is now . called pulque. The king tasted it. It was good: But over the golden bowl from which the king drank, hie hungry eyes feasted upon the lovely maiden who had brought the gift. The result was that the ungrateful old reprobate decided to keep the golden liquor—and also the beautiful girl.

•* While the king was making the maiden a prisoner in his harem, the servants gathered round and drank up the rest of the pulque. They were unused to the liquor, of course, and presently each one of them- felt that he himself Was as much a king as any man who ever walked Ip due course of time the maiden bore a child for the king. By that time the whole Toltec nation, including the king himself/ was worshiping at the shrine of the bianco nentli, as they called the pulque. And so they named the Infant the “Child of the Maguey.” From that day to this a steady and mighty river of pulque has flowed, and continues to flow, from the great maguey plantations down the throats of the thirsty "Children of the Maguey.’*