66 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 



Tying on their own backs crates of fruits, vegetables, 

 hand-made pottery and other simple wares. All were 

 pushing forward, eager to take part in the keenly rel- 

 ished pleasures of petty chaffering, which would enable 

 them to return home with a few decimos knotted in 

 the ends of their sashes. Some of the men saluted me 

 with a polite 'Buenos dias, senor/ but I noted that their 

 conversation was carried on in the Aztec tongue, as 

 spoken by their fathers centuries ago. 



"Once free of the last houses, a convenient opening 

 in the fence was soon found, and I crossed into a great 

 field, which reached for miles down the broad, open 

 valley. Areas covered with wheat and corn stubble 

 indicated the character of the last crops, while farther 

 away broad belts of brilliant green sugar-cane were in 

 vivid contrast to the dry browns and yellows of the 

 general surface. The sun was shining brightly, and 

 the fresh, balmy air seemed full of life-giving power. 

 The musical notes of meadow-larks were heard at in- 

 tervals, and on one side of the valley flocks of red- 

 winged blackbirds were swirling back and forth over 

 some small marshy spots grown up with tules. Through 

 the valley bottom flowed a little stream of clear, spark- 

 ling water, which, before reaching the distant shore of 

 the Pacific, runs a wild course through the mountain 

 gorges of Guerrero. Behind me arose the mysterious 

 pyramid of Cholula, crowned by a white-walled chapel, 

 which now occupies the place of ancient sacrifice. Over 

 to my right stood the gigantic form of the Smoking 

 Mountain hoary old Popocatepetl with the gleaming 



