as a slightly bitter and sharp taste. Chicha
is likewise made from rice, peas, barley, yuccas, pine-apples, and
even bread. The kind most generally used is that made from maize. Even
before the Spanish conquest of Peru, this maize beer was the common
beverage of the Indians. In Lima there are some very dirty and
ill-arranged _restaurations_, styled _picanterias_. These places are
divided by partitions into several small compartments, each of which
contains a table and two benches. The _restaurateur_, usually a zambo
or a mulatto, prides himself in the superiority of his _picantes_ and
his _clicha_. The most motley assemblages frequent these places in the
evening. The Congo negro, the grave Spaniard, the white Creole, the
Chino, together with monks and soldiers, may be seen, all grouped
together, and devouring with evident relish refreshments, served out
in a way not remarkable for cleanliness. Brandy and guarapo are
likewise sold in shops which are to be met with at the corner of
almost every street. The coffee-houses are very inferior; most of
them are very dirty, and the attendance is wretched.

Every street in Lima contains one or more cigar shops, in which
mestizos and mulattos are busily employed in making cigars. Smoking is
a universal custom, and is practised everywhere except in the
churches. The cigars used in Lima are short, and the tobacco is rolled
in paper, or in dried maize leaves. The tobacco is brought from the
northern province, Jaen de Bracamoras, in very hard rolls called
_masos_, about a yard long and two inches thick. Another kind of
cigars is made of Peruvian or Columbian tobacco. They are scarcely
inferior to the Havannah cigars, and would be quite equal to them, if
they were kept long enough and well dried: but in Lima they are smoked
within a few hours after being made. When any one wants to light his
cigar in the street, he accosts the first smoker he happens to meet,
whatever be his color, rank, or condition; and asks him for a light.
The slave smokes in the presence of his master, and when his cigar
dies out, he unceremoniously asks leave to relight it at his master's.
It has been calculated that the daily cost of the cigars smoked in
Lima and the immediate vicinity amounts to 2,300 dollars.

Formerly the market was held on the Plaza Mayor, and was always
abundantly supplied with vegetables, fruit, and flowers. Now it is
held in the Plazuela de la Inquisicion, and it is very inferior to
wha