ROADSIDE SKETCHES IN GUATEMALA 117 



soldiers looked smart in their white uniforms, with blue facings 

 and collars and crimson kepi, and seemed to take great pride in 

 keeping their arms clean. A flower garden has been laid out in 

 the Plaza, in the centre of which is a bandstand, where a fair 

 military band performs two or three times a week ; new fountains 

 and reservoirs for laundry work, well supplied with running 

 water, have been built in the outskirts of the town, where the 

 swampy ground, lately drained, is covered with vegetable gardens 

 and the richest pasture. The best water also supplies the foun- 

 tains and stone troughs in the town itself; the sides of the latter 

 in some instances are worn by constant use as much as those 

 in Pompeii. The Cathedral, with side chapel attached, which 

 somewhat spoils its appearance, has the usual stuccoed fa$ade 

 with niches containing figures of saints. A very pleasant 

 excursion from Quezaltenango is to the baths of Almolonga, 

 situated in a most fertile valley on the other side of the 

 nearest volcano. The water, which issues from the ground 

 almost boiling hot, is conducted into a series of stone baths. 

 For the use of these private baths a charge is made, but 

 the large pool close by in the open air is generally crowded 

 with Indians men, women, and children altogether, who here 

 soak in the hot water, a supposed remedy for many and 

 varied ailments. Nor is Almolonga without its Russian bath 

 a somewhat primitive contrivance, however. The steam from 

 the water, heated by volcanic fire, passes into long, narrow 

 channels cut into the rock ; into these the people creep to be 

 almost broiled, in the firm belief that thereby they will leave 

 all their rheumatic ailments behind them. Peculiar to Quezal- 

 tenango fashion is a long, loose, sack-like shirt which the women 

 wear thrown over their head and shoulders, with -an oval opening 

 near the top, leaving the face alone uncovered. Though very 

 frugal in what they eat, the Indians are not very careful as to 

 what they drink, at all events as regards quantity. The vice 

 of drunkenness is, I fear, very general. Chicha, the favourite 

 beverage, and but slightly intoxicating in moderation, is con- 

 sumed basin after basin, in enormous quantities, until men or 

 women fall into a drunken sleep. It is ridiculously cheap and 

 prepared by fermentation from the coarsest brown sugar panela. 

 Chicha, a dark brown liquid, is the least, aguadiente the most 

 intoxicating drink. There are also many different kinds of 



