ISTHMUS OF TEHUANTEPEC 



12$ 



limits, but ignorant, superstitious, and childlike. For instance, he can 

 carry on his back almost as much as an able bodied burro, but if he were 

 to reach with both hands up the branch of a tree over his head, he would 

 find it impossible to pull his chin up even with it. On the other hand, 

 he can use his machete, his constant companion, in the most skillful 

 manner, and tirelessly. For example, he knows so thoroughly the text- 

 ure and density of all tropical vegetation, that he can cut his way 

 through the forest with scarcely a sound, grading each blow so as to 

 exactly sever vine, stalk/ or limb, without waste of strength; or, if 



RUBIO. YOUNG PLANTED RUBBER. 



given a stint of w r ork in clearing weeds or undergrowth with the 

 machete, can do more in half a day than any other laborer can t in a 

 day. The axe men among them are not as common as the machete men, 

 but they, too, are exceedingly skillful, wielding the straight handled, 

 broad bladed axe with marvelous ease, and felling a tree, no matter how 

 large it is, exactly where they wish. 



As a rule, the natives are not well nourished, and seem to have 

 more sickness than do the foreign residents. Indeed, the stories of 

 yellow fever that come to us relate more to the native workman than to 



