GUANACASTE—PUNTARENAS TO LIBERIA 417 



ing of rough dice, an inch on a side, by a man in charge. 

 The stakes were small, usually five and ten centimos. 



The former name of Filadelfia — Siete Cueros — means 

 "Seven Oxhides," but the word cuero is also used as a vulgar 

 name for the human skin. One explanation of this old name 

 is that the inhabitants suffered from a disease of the heel 

 in which the skin thereof was shed seven times! Siete 

 Cueros is the name given for this place in the 1903 map of 

 Costa Rica published by the Bureau of American Republics 

 in Washington. 



The start for Liberia, announced the previous evening 

 for 5 A. M., was really made about 7 A. M. on January 9, 

 We rode northward over a level country (Filadelfia is about 

 fifty feet above sea-level) with large potreros and three 

 villages, Los Jocotes, Paso Tempisque and Palmira (for- 

 merly Los Boquerones). Many of the poorer houses have 

 walls built merely of upright sticks two to three inches in 

 diameter and not always straight, bound together by lianas, 

 and with a distinct space between each stick and the next. 

 These palings did not always reach the thatched or some- 

 times tiled roof, which was supported on corner posts. Even 

 such a house was usually provided with a sewing machine, 

 kept outside under a veranda or some projecting shed. 



Along the road we noted some long-tailed blue-jays and 

 a pair or so of curious-looking birds called "carga huesos," 

 mostly black but with a white head and neck and a red 

 patch of skin at the base of the bill (Polyborus cheriway). 



Near the village of Palmira we crossed from the west to 

 the east bank of the Rio Tempisque at a place called Chica 

 de la O. The river was here too deep to be forded, so the 

 horses were stripped of their loads and saddles, leaving on 

 the rope bridles, and the rope rein then unfastened at one 

 side to make it long enough to serve as a guiding rope. The 

 saddles and loads were placed in one of the single-log boats 



