THE TOWN OF CART AGO AND ITS LIFE 39 



more elaborate and those exhumed from old Indian graves 

 usually have four short legs and often have animals' heads 

 carved on the ends, while the mano de piedra has a handle 

 and looks in side view like a modern chopping knife. Some 

 piedras of this more elaborate pattern are still in use, but 

 in the ordinary kitchen the simpler style is the common one. 

 It was interesting to see how this old native implement 

 was being replaced by a modern imported machine of the 

 coffee mill or meat-grinder type, so familiar in most American 

 kitchens, and both the iron grinders and the piedras were 

 sold in the market. 



The Plaza of Cartago was particularly pretty, a large 

 square shaded around the outer sides by tall, thick, higuer- 

 ones {Ficus sp.) and by a great variety of other trees within. 

 There were many well-tended flower beds, containing a won- 

 derful variety of plants, not masses of one or two kinds only. 

 The number of different plants in bloom at one time was 

 often very striking. The gravelled walks were neatly kept, 

 there were plenty of comfortable benches and the park in 

 every way was an ornament to Cartago and the town was 

 justly proud of it. As in other Costa Rican towns, the band- 

 stand occupied the middle of the park and here the military 

 band played on Tuesday and Thursday evenings and twice 

 on Sundays. The almost invariable existence and good play- 

 ing of the bands even in small villages in Latin America 

 astonish most northern visitors, and certainly a North Amer- 

 ican town of the size of Cartago that had so excellent a 

 band would be unusual. On July fourth the "Star Spangled 

 Banner" was included in the program of the evening con- 

 cert as a compliment to the American visitors. 



On the north side of the Plaza was the Municipal Palace. 

 On the east side stood the Parroquia, a large unfinished 

 church, begun many years ago and damaged by an earth- 

 quake^before the roof was on. In 1910 it was a big, thick- 



