146 A YEAR OF COSTA RICAN NATURAL HISTORY 



pit some ten feet across and one to two feet deep. The actual 

 mixing was done by two horses (occasionally oxen) which 

 walked round and round in the pasty, sticky mass of mud 

 and water, trampling it until it reached the proper consist- 

 ency. The beasts were tied together, the second to the tail 

 of the first, and led by the brickmaker. In addition to mak- 

 ing the square fiat tiles used as paving bricks, the long 

 curved roofing tiles, the ollas and smaller pots for domestic 

 purposes, there was a thriving industry (so we were told) 

 in the manufacture of "antique" pottery to be sold later 

 to tourists as relics from Indian graves. Here and there 

 was a square brick oven, eight feet high and five feet on a 

 side, for burning the tiles. These ovens were usually under 

 sheds. 



In the southwestern part of the valley little coff"ee was 

 grown, most of the land being in large pastures where horses 

 and more particularly cattle were raised. Many of these 

 fields were badly infested with ticks. These creatures have 

 the habit of resting on grass, leaves or twigs with the first 

 pair of legs extended (there are three pairs in the young, 

 four pairs in the adult) ready to grapple any rough surface 

 that brushes the plant. In this way they get upon their 

 normal hosts, the cattle grazing In the field, and they can 

 equally well attach themselves to human beings. On one 

 occasion in May after walking through a field where cattle 

 often grazed, A. looking down on her khaki skirt and canvas 

 leggings found hundreds of the young of a species of tick 

 (probably Amblyomma cajennense) crawling over them. By 

 scraping the ticks off at once with a knife and later bathing 

 with carbolic soap disagreeable consequences were avoided. 

 But no one who has not lived In the tropics can fully appre- 

 ciate what a pest the ticks may be and the precautions we 

 took against them, such as always wearing high shoes and 

 never going out into the fields without leggings, were fully 



