Ch. X.] BAMBOO THICKETS. 179 



hut on the side of the range, where a few bananas and a 

 little maize was grown. Indian women, naked to the 

 waist, were, as usual, bruising maize, this being their 

 employment from morning to night ; whilst the men were 

 sitting about idle. Some mangy-looking dogs set up a 

 loud barking as we approached. To one of them clung 

 a young spider-monkey. A number of parrots also gave 

 evidence of the great fondness the Indians have for 

 animal pets. There is scarcely a house where some bird 

 or beast is not kept ; and the Indian women are very 

 clever in taming birds, probably by their constant kind- 

 ness and gentleness to them, and by feeding them out of 

 their mouths and fondling them. From near here we 

 had a fine view, and saw that we had come up the side 

 of a wide valley, bounded on the left by the Amerrique 

 range, on the right by high rounded grassy hills, on one 

 of which we could make out the cattle hacienda of 

 La Puerta. Lines of trees and bamboo thickets marked 

 the course of numerous brooks that joined lower down 

 and formed the small rivers we had crossed. Looking 

 down the valley it opened out into a wide plain, with 

 here and there sharp-topped conical hills, such as abound 

 in Central America, where they appear to have been 

 taken as landmarks by the Indians, as many of the old 

 roads lead past them. Beyond the plain in the grey 

 distance were the waters of the lake and the peaks of 

 Ometepec and Madera. 



We had now to ascend the side of a ravine, the road, 

 or rather path, being through a bamboo thicket for about 

 a mile, and the bamboos touching our knees on either 

 side, arching close overhead, so that we had to lie on 

 the mules' necks a great part of the way. Some portions 



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