The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1896-07-13
In JOYFUL YUCATAN,
A TRAVELLING GROCERY MAN WAKES
ELOQUENT IN PRAISE.
Tie Talks of Bread That Grows In Nuts,
fTilk That Comes From Trees, Strip
That Gathers ON Ants Backs and Light
That Shines From Leaves.

That Shines From Leaves.
Seems to me that ought to be sorry
/ went down there, now," said John
Gilbert, the travelling grocery man,
who recently returned from a six weeks
stay in Yucatan. Il don't see how l
can go ahead and resume the rounds
that my business calls for without q
sigh and regret, that, go where may
in my native land, / will look in vain
for the tree that in those tropical climes
gave me light by night, for the tree
that gave me my daily bread, and the
one that gave me milk for my coffee, to
say nothing of the pleasing and Dubious
ant that gave me the sweetening for it.
Time and cash customers may wear
down and blunt the edge of this regret,
but it is sharp now, and really suppose
that l ought to be sorry went down
there.
II didn't know anything about these
remarkable specimens Of the vegetable
and animal kingdoms when first struck
that country, but l noticed that the
bread we had in camp was very good
and the milk very choice and creamy,
while the coffee was deliciously sweet
ened. One morning heard the cook Of
our party hollering out orders to the
Indian guides.
Here, your he hollered. Hurry
up and pick some bread! And there
amt bit of milkl Gro bore for some
right away! And say, you dago over
yonder, what's the matter Of you
straining some sugar out o. them ants?'
"This was little astonishing TO me,
and / asked for information. Then l
found out all about it.
1.-The tree that gave the bread we ate
down there doesn't look bit as if ii
would do il. But found out that looks
are deceptive under the equator. The
bread isn't bread exactly when il is first
picked, but it is a nice, stiff dough in
closed in nutshell about the size of a
goose egg They crack the shell, take
out the dough, knead it a little, and il
is ready for baking By thinning il
down TO batter with the milk they get
from another tree, our camp cook used
TO make first rate pancakes out of il.
The day l came away he strained the
sweetening out of a quart of ants, mixed
it up with batch of the dough and
made sweet cake that would have beer
good enough for anybody's folks to SCI
out before company.
1.-THE ants that supply the honey, OF
strip, or whatever it might be called
are worth travelling all the way dowr
there on mule to see. They are abou
the size of small peanut, and on theil
back is transparent sack that they dis
til honey into until they swell up as biz
as a good sized marble. You can SCOOP
these ants up by the peck. They MAKE
this honey to feed their young ON, bu
they are so good natured and so suscep
tible to familiarity that all one has L
do is to tickle them under the fore
shoulder and they will give you every
drop of honey they have in stock ant
then go meekly off to fill up again.
But this accommodating ant ISM
one whit more curious than the tree
that acts in the capacity Of dairy dowr
there. This tree has big leaf, SO tough
and leathery that they use it for hal
selling shoes When they want to mill
one of the trees, they bore hole in In,
trunk, and it lets down a sap as white
and as sweet as any milk you ever reaC
about in summer hotel advertisements
To get sweet milk out of this vegetabl,
COW, though, You must milk it early il
the morning After the sun has been VI
two or three hours the tree gives SOU
milk They tell weird tale down Their,
about vengeful snake and foolhard,
Indian. The snake is of the deadly ven
omous aphidian family familiar il
the tropics by queer Indian name which
1 can't remember and which / couldn
pronounce if did remember it. In Eng
lish it is bushman. This particula
snake had nest of young ones, and tn,
Indian was foolhardy enough to stea
them. The mother snake followed tn,
Indian to his hut only to find the dea,
bodies of her offspring lying about will
their heads smashed. The mother snak,
disappeared Next morning the Indiai
went out and tapped his cow tree fo
milk, and returning drank il for hi
breakfast. He had scarcely swallowed i
when he began to double up and howl
His eyes bulged out and his cheeks turn
ed fiery red and with yell fell dead.
"'The bushmanp cried his wife. 'Th
bushman has stung himr
HE had all the symptoms that follow
the bite of that cheerful serpent, but no
where about him could the marks of tn
deadly fangs of one be found upon TIL
dead Indian. Later they found tn
mother bushman lying dead in tn
bushes near the COW tree. In the trunl
Of the tree, deeply embedded, they dis
covered her poison fangs. Then the ter
rible truth was revealed. The snake
despoiled of her family, had avenge,
herself ON the despoiler. She had min
gled her venom with the milk in tn
tree, and the Indian had drunk of i
deeply and met his awful fate.
But the tree that gives light inter
ested and amazed me more than the 9th
ers. This tree doesn't grow more thai
10 or 10 feet high, but three Of ther
would light pretty good sized house
II you rub its leaves smartly betwce
your hands they will glow in the dar
like lightning bug. AS soon as nigh
comes the leaves ON this tree begin Z
shine as if they were so many electri
lights. Looking off across country, on
can see scores of the trees shining her
and there in the darkness like beaco
lights set in the hills. The Indians cal
il the witch tree, and don't blam
them. 1t gives the best light after il Ina
been drenched with water, and 50 IL th
tree begins tn grow little dim all the
have to do is to douse two or three pail