"Well, everybody drinks it, or, rather, sucks it, as the leaves are broken into powder while drying, and not preserved whole, like Chinese tea-leaves. Fred and I have provided ourselves with _bombillas_, as the tubes are called, after the custom of the European residents, and whenever the cup is circulating we come in for our share. The dry powder is poured into a cup or bowl and covered with boiling water; when it has stood long enough for the infusion to be drawn it is sucked through the bombilla, precisely as people in New York take lemonades through straws. [Illustration: CUPS AND TUBES FOR MATÉ.] "The natives pass the cup and tube from one to another, but the European residents generally carry tubes of their own, and only the cup is passed around. The tube may be a reed or a straw, or of metal or glass, according to the fancy of the owner; ours are of glass, and we carry them in cases to prevent their being broken. "Everybody drinks _maté_, and the Europeans who come here take to it with the greatest readiness. It has the same refreshing qualities as are found in tea and coffee; the chemists say it contains _caffeine_ and _theine_, together with caffeo-tannic acid, and it is sometimes recommended by physicians for their patients. We are told that there is no part of the world where Chinese tea is consumed by the inhabitants in as great a proportion as is maté by the South Americans. It is taken at meals and between meals; at all hours of the day and night, and also between those hours. "And now for the plant. Its scientific name is _Ilex Paraguayensis_; it is a species of holly, growing on the banks of rivers in Paraguay and in the mountains of Brazil and Bolivia. It reaches a height of fifteen or twenty feet, and its leaves are four or five inches long, with serrated edges. The leaves are dried by artificial heat on a network of small poles, over a hard, earthen floor; when thoroughly roasted they are beaten with sticks until reduced to the powder I have already mentioned, when they fall through the network to the floor. "This powder is collected and packed in bags of hide; each bag holds about two hundred pounds of maté, and in this condition it is shipped to market. About five million pounds of maté are sent every year from Paraguay to other South American countries, but very little goes to North America or to Europe. The outside world has not yet learned of its virtues to any appreciable extent. "'Do you sweeten it as you do Chinese tea?' I hear some one asking. "Generally you do not. The natives almost never do, but some of the Europeans, who were accustomed to sweetened tea in their old homes, put a little sugar in the maté. Others put in a slice of lemon, just as the Russians do with their tea; Fred and I have taken our maté plain, and like it very much." * * * * *