These hearts contain a great deal of saccharine matter, and are baked between hot stones in earth mounds, being protected against contact with earth by layers of grass.
When the Tarahumares want to make maguey wine they leave the baked stalks in water in natural hollows or pockets in rocks, without any covering.

The root of a certain plant called frijolillo is added as a ferment, and after two days the juice is wrung out with a blanket.
An intoxicating drink is also made from another agave, called tshawi, which, though common on the higher slopes of the barrancas, has only recently become known to science.

According to tradition it is the first plant God created, and the liquor made from it is considered by the pagan Tarahumares as indispensable to certain ceremonies.

The Tepehuanes, too, put much importance on this brew, and say that the plant is so sensitive that if one passes a jar in which it is being boiled the liquid will not ferment.
Finally it should be mentioned that an intoxicating, though extremely distasteful drink is made from the stalk of the maize plant (_cana_), by pounding this material into a pulp, then allowing it to soak in water for three days, when it is fermented, whereupon the liquor is prepared in the same way as the maguey wine..