The Republican journal., 1903-01-29

in, as there was no sign of wash basin,
or the crockery to which one is accus-
| toned.
When finally summoned to alnluerza
| (breakfast) in the big dining room,
where the family and guests were as
sembled, the lady of the house followed
bringing a large ola, or earthenware
jar of soup, just off the fire. This first
course at every well-regulated country
| breakfast in Colombia is made of hot
| water, beaten eggs and plenty of grease,
favored with parsley, fennel little
salt and a good deal of pepper, and
hard boiled eggs put in whole.
| Next came cold boiled mutton, with
a bit of cold turkey covered with amole
"a brick-colored sauce, red hot with
| Drowned pepper and two sweet pota-
| toes, all served together on each plate.
Then came a great platter of boiled
| things-sausages, chicken, mutton, beef,
with various vegetables, seeds and green
ttlVo, OOllCu III OllC lop, anu oSl ' CA iSst
hot, the main dish of the meal. With
| this sauce of green peppers was hand
ed around, merely to look at, which
brought tears to ones eyes. This was
followed by slices of aguacate, the only
| fruit used for salads, sometimes called
vegetable butter" then cheese, arepa
| cake and the weakest of tea. 1t may be
remarked, Ell passant, that Colombians
seem to have no idea how to make tea,
and they drink it as a medicine, which
| in their hands it resembles. The native
cheese is white as paper, and quite as
tough and tasteless. Arepa cake is a
sort of first cousin to the Mexican tor
tilla, being made of crushed corn and
water without salt or soda, baked on
hot griddle, or in the ashes, and eaten
without butter
After breakfast the kind host and
| hostess beguiled the time for us by a
! tour of the hacienda, visit to the
flower garden, the pigs and poultry, a
stroll along the river bank and view
of the few sights of the village. At
$50 we returned to dinner This is the
ceremonious meal of the day-so formal
and stately that each lady is expected
to dress for it and to enter the dining
room on the arm of a male escort,
though the tive-year-old son of the
family be unwillingly impressed into
| the service when there are not enough
adult gentlemen to go around. This
going in to dinner is weighty affair
and the cause of much concern on the
part of host and hostess because pre-
| cedence must be given to the pair Of
| highest social rank and greatest age,
and to make mistake about it would
| be embarrassing indeed.
The table was beautifully spread,
with a pyramid of howers in the middle
and at each plate a bouquet of blue-for-
get-me-nots, tied with pink ribbon. At
the hostess end of the table appeared
| big roast turkey, and at the hosts an
array of bottles-wine, brandy, beer
and chiche-the latter native bever-
age, made from fermented corn and be-
lieved to be very strengthening. First
cocktails were served, the edge of each
glass sugared to perfection; and at the
end of the repast the cognac bottle was
circulated for those who desired to
flavor their coffee. Betw cen cocktail
| nd GOAL, ol u ixy;1
uaI taste in the beverages above men
tiOned-eXcept in the matter of chiche
"a villianOuS brew that neither cheers
nor inebriates, but which everybody
J must taste out of courtesy to the place,
! because it is homemade and the house
wife's special pride. The first course
was soup-a greasy semi-liquid, colored
saffron-yellow by some mysterious pro-
cess. Then the lady of the house cary
ed the turkey, while her lord at the
other end of the long table busted him
self with the popping corks. With each
slice of turkey was put two Irish pota-
toes, a lump of corn-meal pudding, a
bit of roast mutton and some aguacate
salad When this had been cleared
away and the table emptied of all but
the flowers and bottles and little dishes
of red hot pepper-sauce, another kind of
soup was brought in, called mesamora,
seemingly composed of everything the
cook could lay hands on, including rice,
tomatoes, fish, pork, slices of peaches
and aguacates, ripe grapes, peppers,
potatoes, what not. Then came dulce,
or sweetmeat of cornmeal, well sugar
house "Juratena." Afterwards cheese
was served, with aripe-cake, accompan-
led by huge mugs of chiche. Then