114 URBANA. 



banner side by side. Music and dancing in the evening 

 closed the celebration and festivities of the day. 



We now turned toward our temporary home, the best 

 that the place afforded, an abandoned pulperia, and, upon 

 opening the doors, were greeted by a swarm of hideous, 

 screeching bats, as they made their exit from the building. 

 A war of extermination was at once inaugurated ; but we 

 soon discovered our enemy had the better of the game ; for, 

 when we made an attack with jDoles, they clustered uj) be- 

 neath tlie high palm-leaf roof, whose loose meshes seemed 

 to be fairly alive with the creatures, and whence they 

 poiired out re enforcements unlimited. Smoking was then 

 resorted to, Avhich, we inferred, would bring them to a 

 realizing sense of the undesirableness of their presence; 

 but they very quietly secreted themselves in the thatched 

 roof during the operation, while we were compelled to 

 seek refuge without. Failing to expel the creatures, we 

 in desjDair composed ourselves in our hammocks. We 

 cannot say that the bats proved themselves such undesir- 

 able night-companions as our imaginations had pictured 

 them to be, for the oppressive heat of our ill-ventilated 

 room was greatly mitigated by their winging their way 

 to and fro, fanning the air to a constant breeze. 



Urbana, Avhich has a Spanish population of about five 

 hundred, comprises a church, three pulperias, and about 

 sixty dwellings, Avhich are mostly on two streets parallel 

 to the river. A portion of the houses are made of mud ; 

 while the others are constructed wholly of palm-leaves that 

 are twenty-five to thirty feet in length, a dozen making an 

 ordinary load for a yoke of oxen to drag in from the plains 

 where they are procured. For convenience in building, 

 the houses are made the length of a leaf, which is fastened 

 on with lianas, or vines. Aside from a small patch of 

 maize, we saw nothing growing in this district of country 

 for the support of the people. They depend for subsist- 



