HENEQUEH. 21 



seemed to be quite a favorite object of wearing apparel with 

 the Yucatecans, and the brighter and more varied the colors, 

 the better was the garment liked. 



The day was most brilliant; the sky without a cloud. 

 In fact, it was one of those glorious days preceding the 

 rainy season. The radiation of heat from the limestone 

 road was visible by the quivering motion of the air about 

 it. We saw and heard but few birds; a few cattle, belonging 

 to a hacienda near by, were seen congregating beneath the 

 friendly shelter of a wide-spreading tree. The very soil 

 was warm beneath our feet, and we were exceedingly re- 

 lieved to reach a large hacienda, about noon, where we 

 halted to rest, eat our lunch, and slake our burning thirst. 



This hacienda was devoted principally to the cultiva- 

 tion of henequen. This henequen is first cut from the stem 

 quite near the ground, then carried to the mill where it 

 is torn into shreds by machinery, and then hung upon rails 

 in the sun to dry, after which it is put up in bales which are 

 compressed by machinery. The whole process is at once 

 simple and effective, and a great quantity may be baled in 

 a single day. The henequen arrives at maturity, or at a 

 point ready for cutting, in from live to seven years. The 

 leaves, when at their best, are from four to five feet in 

 length. Each plant yields 20 or 30 leaves yearly for a pe- 

 riod of 12 to 20 years, about a third more in the rainy than 

 in the dry season. It takes over 8,000 leaves to make a 

 400-pound bale. The bales vary in weight from 350 to 450 

 pounds each. 



We ate our lunch beneath the friendly shade of a ceiba 

 tree near an old well, from which the water was drawn by 

 means of an endless chain of buckets, propelled by a long 

 pole acting upon a series of wooden cogs. Here I tasted 

 for the first time the sepote, a fruit resembling our peach, of 

 which I had heard much. It was very sweet and quite de- 



