Unaccustomed as we were to horseback riding, it required the most Spartanlike courage to mount our horses again. After going a few miles it came time for breakfast and our interpreter asked one of the guides to prepare the meal. He responded by reaching down into a small bag hanging at his saddle-horn and pulling out four _tortillas_, one for each of us. This was the only article of food they offered us.
It may be explained that the _tortilla_ (pronounced torteeya) is the most common article of food in Mexico. It is common in two different senses,--in that it is the cheapest and least palatable food known, and also that it is more generally used than any other food there. In appearance the _tortilla_ resembles our pancake, except that it is thinner, tougher, and usually larger around. The size varies from four to seven inches in width, and the thickness from an eighth to a quarter of an inch. It is made of corn, moistened in limewater in order to remove the hulls, then laid on the flat surface of a _metate_ (a stone-slab prepared for the purpose), and ground to a thick doughy substance by means of a round stone-bar held horizontally with one hand at each end and rubbed up and down the netherstone, washboard fashion. The women usually do this work, and grind only as much at a time as may be required for the meal. The dough--which contains no seasoning of any kind--not even salt--is pressed and patted into thin cakes between the palms of the hand, and laid on a griddle or piece of sheetiron (stoves being seldom seen) over a fire to bake. They are frequently served with black beans--another very common article of food in Mexico--and by tearing them into small pieces they are made to serve the purpose of knives, forks and spoons in conveying food to the mouth,--the piece of _tortilla_ always being deposited in the mouth with the food which it conveys. Among the poorer classes the _tortilla_ is frequently the only food taken for days and perhaps weeks at a time. It is never baked crisp, but is cooked just enough to change the color slightly. When served hot, with butter--an _extremely_ rare article in the rural districts--it is rather agreeable to the taste, but when cold it becomes very tough and in taste it resembles the sole of an old rubber shoe.