The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-05-09


 ing 'by the neck until dead is a crime
 which was never perpetrated in Peru, even in the darkest days of Spanish
 cruelty. The prisoners are mostly en-
 gagged in making uniforms. shoes and other equipments for the army.
 The central market of Lima is as ! spacious and convenient as any in | northern city. The squares are very large and this market covers whole one, including part of the old convent of Conception, which was forcibly ap- propriated by the government and the
 nuns elected in the year 1851, at the inn minent risk of a revolution. The mar ket-house proper is built around a great open courtyard, with exterior shops and an inner corridar, and is tra- versed by well-paved pathways radia- 1 ting from a big fountain in the center. , This arrangement forms series of
 small courts, and each is appropriated ! to especial products. The principal dealers have stalls, vbut the mass of i vendors, who are women of lowest de- gree, squat all day upon the pavement at the edge of the galleries, or on the , ground in the open spaces, with their fruits, or fish or vegetables, or what
 ever it may be, heaped up in fiat bas- kets, or on mats spread before them i'll small piles called "montones." Each
 monton has fixed price, which never varies whatever the fluctuations of the market; but the rise and fall of the i commodity is marked by the size of the
 montOn, a little more or less, as the l case may be, for the same amount of
 money. As do their confreres in other
 parts of the world, they chatter like | magpies with one another and with l their customers, perhaps nursing their babies the while, or performing other
 less pleasing maternal duties. The children of the market, begotten, born and reared on the spot, begin to tumble and sprawl about in very promiscu- ous manner as soon as they have gained sufficient strength, and in due course of time take to the vocation of their parents as naturally as ducks to water. Many of these market-people
 spend their lives on the spot and know
 no other home-eatinfg and sleeping on 1 the ground.
 I Si Nf ioti (OOhGIy ID ail 1iiNOilSA hCoo | mixture of foreign and native styles, the latter predominating at private meals, the former at all ceremonious re- pasts. A dinner table custom, which | was once common and is not yet entire | ly done away with, even in proud Lima,
 is called the bocadita. and is rather comical if not always entirely accepta- ble demonstration of friendship, or | something warmer. It consists in se- | lecting a choice morsel from your own plate, and handing it on your fork to
 some lady present; who, in her turn, is privileged to not only pay back the del icate compliment, but to intensity 1t by taking tid-bit from her own plate, without the aid of her knife or fork, | and presenting it to the gentleman who has made the challenge, he leaning over the table and receiving it in his mouth
 from her fingers.
 It used to be customary in Peru, on
 all occasions of formality,, for the host
 and hostess to eat by themselves, im-
 mediately before the banquet; and then during the progress of the cerenonious trepast to take nothing whatever, though
 sitting one at each end of the table, be- ing supposed in that way to give their
 undivided attention to the guests.
 MT. Knox, in his Boy Travellers"
 makes Frank say in a letter to his
 mother: We cannot say much for the
 cookery of Lima, if we are to judge by
 what we have seen. One article that
 may be called a national dish of Peru is known as puchero. I have obtained the recipe for you, and here it is:
 Have kettle according to your puche-
 ro put into it a large piece of beer or mutton, some cabbage, sweet potatoes, salt pork, sausage, pigs feet, yucas, be- | nanas, quinces, Irish potatoes, pears.
 peas, beans and rice; with spices of all sorts, salt and plenty of red peppers. Add sufficient water, and stew the
 whole gently four or five hours; then
 serve on a deep platter. Puchero is patterned somewhat after the ola pod rida of Spain, the chowder of New Eng
 land, and the bouillabiasse of southern France, but contains more ingredients
 and more flavors than all of them put together
 f nAother stew, simpler than puchero, is called chupe, favorite breakfast
 dish, but not often served at dinner,
 The lower classes are fond of the hot
 test picantes, compounded of meat, fish,
 crabs, corn meal, potatoes, bananas and red peppers, mixed with the juice of bit
 ter oranges and stewed in water. We have tasted this wonderful mixture but
 could not manage second spoonful in
 consequence of the fiery nature of the
 peppers. Fred says. they use a pound
 ingredients, water included. Following
 a torch-light procession would be pre-
 ferable to dinner of picantes" In the
 poorer parts of Lima there is picante-