Some tribes have become civilised, like the Iroquois, the Cherokees, and the Choctaws. Some tribes of Arizona and the contiguous regions are at the other end of the scale, living a rude life, even for Amerinds, and subsisting on uncultivated products of the soil, like piñon nuts, fruits of cactus and yucca, “_yant_,” a kind of agave, and seeds of grasses, as well as on what game the sterile region affords. The grass seeds are, some of them, large and fat, and make nutritious food. Many tribes cultivated a grain that has no superior in the world for its yield, its ease of cultivation, and its nutritious qualities. This was maize, or Indian corn, which grows in new ground with little attention, and can be dried and stored indefinitely. No machinery was required to separate it from the husk, and it was easily reduced to meal or flour between two stones or in a mortar. Nor did it even need to be ground, but, roasted in pits, or prepared in other ways, it offered a palatable and nutritious food, even before the ripening. Dried, or parched, it was carried on journeys, and dried venison added to it made a strengthening diet. There were, besides, other foods, like beans, squashes, native fruits and berries, and nuts. Nor was the native without beverages, some of them intoxicating; the _pulque_, or _octli_ of the Mexicans, extracted from the maguey, being a well-known example. There are many varieties of this drink, though all are made in the same way. In the spring the central part of the plant is removed, leaving a cup-like cavity which fills up with juice, that is taken out from time to time, and put into a kind of vat made of hide stretched on four poles. After fermentation, bitter herbs are added. _Mezcal_ is another drink made from a smaller kind of maguey. It is a colourless, brandy-like liquid, produced by distillation since the Conquest, but before that made by boiling, just as the Comanches make it to-day.[314] The Kaivavits and Uinkarets made a kind of wine out of the fruit of the cactus. The fruit was put into a cloth and the juice squeezed out. This was then allowed to ferment, and I was told produced intoxication, though I never observed this result. The cake resulting from the process was consumed as food, being sliced down like bread, and eaten without further preparation. The Pimas and Maricopas, after drying cactus fruit in the sun, macerate it in water, and after fermentation get drunk on the compound. [Illustration: THE KWAKIUTL WOLF DANCE CALLED WĀLASAXA, NORTH-WEST COAST]