172 



NEW TRACKS IN NOETH AMERICA. 



the villages we were at once impressed with the beauty, 

 order, and disposition of the arrangements for ii-rigating and 

 draining the land, . Maize, wheat, and cotton, are the crops 

 raised hy this peaceful and intelligent race of people ; all had 

 just been gathered in, and the stubbles showed that they had 

 been luxurious. The cotton was picked and stacked for 

 drying on the tops of the sheds. The fields are subdiyided 

 by ridges of earth into rectangles of about 200 by 100 feet, 



The fences are of sticks, 

 wattled with willow and mezq^uite, and, in this particular, 



for the convenience of irrigatiag. 



in agriculture worthy 



are an example of economy 

 followed by the Mexicans, who never use fences at all. 

 " In front of each dome-shaped hut is usually 



to be 



a large 



arbour, on the top of which is piled the cotton in the pod for 

 drying. To us it "was a rare sight to be tliro^Yn in the midst 



V 



of a large tribe of what is termed wild Indians, surpassing 

 many of the Chiistian nations in agriculture, little behind 

 them in useful arts, and immeasurably before them in honesty 

 and virtue. Diu'ing the whole of yesterday oui' camp was 

 full of men, women, and children, who sauntered amongst our 



packs unwatched, and not a single instance of theft 

 reported. 



was 



(I 



I saw a woman seated on the ground under the shade ol 

 one of the cotton sheds ; her left leg was tucked under her 

 seat, and her foot turned sole upwards ; between her big toe 

 and the next was a spindle about eighteen inches long, with 

 a single fly of four or six inches. Ever and anon she gave it 

 a twist in a dexterous manner, and at its end was drawn a 

 coarse cotton thread. This was their spinning jenny, 

 on by this primitive display, I asked for then- loom, by 

 pointing to the thread and then to the blanket girt about the 

 woman's loins. A fellow stretched in the dust, sunning 



Led 



