116 SPORT AND TRAVEL PAPERS 



neither caring to join the ladino revellers in their orgie, nor to 

 suggest an adjournment for fear of falling into a hornet's nest. 

 Sounds of a general melee made us open our door at daybreak, 

 when the yard of Hotel Concordia presented a curious sight. A 

 kind of triangular duel with finger-nails was going on between 

 some of the fair ones, who, more or less en deshabille, were 

 terribly dishevelled and evidently the worse for drink, while the 

 spectators also had emptied many a cup, all showing the most 

 evident signs of having passed a very hard night. The duel 

 ended in scratches and tears ; brandy was administered to the 

 wounded, who tied up their heads, bathed each other's eyes, and 

 at last disappeared arm-in-arm, forgiving and forgiven, beyond 

 the doors of the revel chamber ; and so it all ended in " Con- 

 cordia." An early ride in the morning air soon freshened us 

 up, but we sincerely hoped that at Quezaltenango, our next 

 stopping-place, the marimba might be silent and the Marsellaise 

 unknown. Quezaltenango, the second largest city in the 

 republic, lies at an altitude of about 5,000 feet, in the same 

 plain as Totonicapan, which, enclosed on all sides by moun- 

 tains, was now yellow and dried up, while, during the rains, it 

 is a sheet of green covered with maize and wheat, a fertile 

 plateau. Quezaltenango, a town similar in appearance to all 

 the others, means the abode of the quezal, a bird first the 

 emblem of the royal house of Quiche, now that of the republic 

 of Guatemala. A right royal bird it is too, Trogon resplendens, 

 probably the handsomest that lives, with its bright metallic 

 green body, sparkling crest, and long, green tail feathers, the 

 whole set off by a rich crimson breast. The town has a large 

 and very good hotel, a roomy market-place, well attended, a 

 governor who is doing everything he can to improve the town, 

 and a large garrison. It lies at the foot of two volcanoes ; the 

 nearest, called after the city, has its crater completely shattered 

 by an eruption, but still smokes on ; the other, that of Santa 

 Maria, 12,000 feet high, is a perfect cone. Several very hand- 

 some public buildings have lately been erected on the Plaza ; the 

 prison especially and the new police offices, constructed of sand- 

 stone from the quarries close by, do great credit to the architect 

 and the Indians working under him. Any money required for 

 the erection of public buildings is collected in the villages around, 

 and probably the contributions are not always voluntary. The 



