[1] The figure in the left of the foreground is said by Bontekoe to represent the native method of procuring fire by rapidly twirling a pointed stick in a groove of a piece of wood placed on the ground. [Illustration: FROM A PHOTOGRAPH OF A STONE MILL, OR FLAT MORTAR.] The drinks made from this coarse chocolate were frequently very complex, but the chocolate itself was the chief constituent. It was the custom to beat the mixture into a froth or foam, by means of stirrers, of mallet-like forms; in fact, it is said by some writers that the very name chocolate, is derived from a native word indicating the noise made by the stirring of the beverage. Thus, Thomas Gage, in his “New Survey of the West Indies,” says (under date of 1648), “The name chocolatte is an Indian name, and is compounded from _atte_, as some say, or as others, _atle_, which in the Mexican language signifieth water, and from the sound which the water (wherein is put the chocolatte) makes, as _choco_, _choco_, _choco_, when it is stirred in a cup by an instrument called a ‘molinet,’ or ‘molinillo,’ until it bubble and rise unto a froath.” [Illustration: SOME OF THE FORMS OF CHOCOLATE STIRRERS (“MOLINETS”). _From a treatise published in the Seventeenth Century._] The same writer gives us an interesting account of the native method of preparing the drink. From the extract, which is copied without change of the quaint spelling, it will be seen how wide the use of chocolate was in Europe towards the middle of the seventeenth century:--