Ch. XI.] A TILLAGE DOCTOR. 199 



accounted for the chairs and table, and also for the 

 absence of any attempt at gardening around the house 

 for the Indian eschews furniture, but is nearly always a 

 gardener. 



We finished our homely breakfast and set off again, 

 crossing some more rocky ranges, and passing several 

 Indian huts with orange trees growing around them, 

 and at two o'clock in the afternoon reached the small 

 town of Comoapa, where I determined to wait for Velas- 

 quez. Looking about for a house to stay at, we found 

 one kept by a woman who formerly lived at Santo 

 Domingo, and who was very glad to receive us ; though 

 we found afterwards she had already more travellers 

 staying with her than she could very well accommo- 

 date. 



I had shot a pretty mot-mot on the road, and proceeded 

 to skin it, to the amusement and delight of about a 

 dozen spectators, who wondered what I could want 

 with the " hide " of a bird, the only skinning that they 

 had ever seen being that of deer and cattle. A native 

 doctor, who was staying at the house, insisted on helping 

 me, and as the mot-mot's skin is very tough, he did not 

 do much harm. The bird had been shot in the morning, 

 and some one remarking that no blood flowed when it 

 was cut, the doctor said, with a wise air, that that class 

 of birds had no blood, and that he knew of another class 

 that also had none, to which his auditors gave a satisfied 

 " Como no" ("Why not?"). He also gave us to 

 understand that he had himself at one time skinned 

 birds, and being evidently looked up to as an authority 

 on all subjects by the simple country people, he was 

 unwilling that his reputation should suffer by it being 



