THE MARKETS OF MEXICO. 271 



south was the tract between San Angel, Tacabaya, and 

 San Augustin de las Ouevas, an immense garden of 

 orange, peach, apple, and cherry trees. This beautiful 

 cultivation formed a singular contrast with the wild ap- 

 pearance of the naked mountains which enclosed the 

 valley, among which were the famous volcanoes of La 

 Puebla, Popocatepetl, and Iztaccihuatl. And around and 

 overhead, steeped in sunshine, was the deep blue tropic sky. 



Sometimes in the morning Humboldt went to the 

 market-place and watched the Indian hucksters, en- 

 trenched in verdure. No matter what they sold, fruit, 

 roots, or pulque, their shops were ornamented with 

 flowers. A hedge, a yard high, made of fresh herbs and 

 delicate leaves, surrounded like a semicircular wall the 

 fruits offered to public sale. The bottom of the market, 

 which was smooth and green, was divided by garlands 

 of flowers, which ran parallel to one another. Small 

 nosegays placed symmetrically between the festoons, 

 gave this enclosure the appearance of a carpet strewn 

 with flowers. Humboldt was struck with the way 

 in which the natives displayed their fruit in small 

 cages of light wood. They filled the bottom of these 

 cages with raisins and pears, and ornamented the top 

 with the most odorous flowers. Without doubt this art 

 of entwining fruits and flowers had its origin in that 

 happy period when, long before the introduction of 

 inhuman rites, the first inhabitants of Anahuac offered up 

 to the gre*at spirit Teotl the first fruits of their harvest. 



But the prettiest sight was to see at sunrise the In- 

 dians with their boats loaded with fruits and flowers, 

 descending the canals of Iztacalco and Chalco. The 

 greater part of their fruits and roots were cultivated on 



