ETJIXS OP MEXCHE. 41 



told me stood somewhere near the river-bank. There was no trace of it, however, 

 near the river, so we followed a narrow path into the forest, marked by two jaguars' 

 skulls stuck on poles, and here and there by some sticks laid across the track, over 

 which the Indians had probably dragged their small canoes. About two miles distant 

 from the river we found three houses standing in a clearing near the bank of a small 

 stream. A woman came out to meet us, and received us most courteously, asking us 

 to rest in a small shed. Her dress was a single sack-like garment, similar to that 

 worn by the man we had met earlier in the day ; her straight black hair fell loose over 

 her shoulders, and round her neck hung strings of brown seeds interspersed with 

 beads and silver coins, dollars and half-dollars, which she said were obtained in 

 Tabasco. Two other women came out of their houses to greet us, and they told us 

 that all the men were away hunting for wild cacao in the forest, and would not 

 return for five days. The walls of the houses were very low, but in other respects 

 they resembled the ordinary ranchos of the civilized Indians. I asked if I might look 

 into one of them, but my mozos strongly advised me not to make the attempt, as the 

 numerous howling dogs shut up inside were savage and were sure to attack me. 



The clearing round the houses was planted with maize, plantains, chillies, tobacco, 

 gourds, tomatoes, calabash-trees, and cotton. We exchanged a little salt for some 

 plantains, yams, and tomatoes without any haggling, and the women agreed to make 

 me some totoposte, which I was to send for in a few days, and one of them, pointing 

 to a silver dollar on her necklace, said they wanted a coin like that in payment. 



I was surprised to find the women so pleasant-mannered and free from the dull 

 shyness which characterizes the civilized Indians. On my return up the river some 

 days later I again visited the "caribal," and was received with equal courtesy by the 

 men, who had then returned from the forest, to whom I repeated my request to see the 

 inside of one of their houses ; however, a very rapid glance was sufficient to satisfy my 

 curiosity, for as soon as I showed myself at the half-open door seven or eight dogs tied 

 to the wall-posts nearly brought down the house in their efforts to get at me, and two 

 of them were with difficulty prevented by the women from breaking the cords which 

 held them. 



Some especial significance must attach to the wearing of the brown-seed necklaces, 

 for no offers which I could make would induce either man or woman to part with one 

 of them. I was much impressed by the striking likeuess which the features of the 

 elder man, who appeared to be the leader of the village, bore to those carved in stone 

 at Palenque and Menche. The extremely sloping forehead was not quite so noticeable 

 in the younger men, and it may be that the custom of binding back the forehead in 

 infancy, which undoubtedly obtained among the ancients, is being now abandoned. 

 These people still use bows and stone-tipped arrows, which they carry with them 

 wrapped in a sheet of bark. 



After visiting the "caribal" we continued our course down-stream, and camped for 



?2 



