272 TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISCENCES. 



make up of this ancient Mexican 

 jaeal was quite an interesting 

 study ! The interior rooms, bare of 

 any window, was a nine by twenty 

 feet chamber, and undoubtedly 

 used by the entire family. The 

 frame-work of this hut consisted 

 of three very thick' poles from 

 the haekberry tree, put deeply in 

 the ground, about five feet apart, 

 with the thickest pole in the 

 center. About two feet of the 

 upper trunk, or bifurcation of 

 these haekberry trees, served 

 to support a long and thick 

 haekberry pole — tightly fastened 

 between the forked trunk of the 



haekberry stems along the north 

 and south sides — in order to sup- 

 port the roof coverings which 

 consist of patches of tule. All 

 of the wooden cross-bars were 

 tightly adjusted to the main 

 forked stems by means of wirie 

 and rawhide strips, as well as 

 strips of the Texas dagger plant 

 — "amole." The intersecting 

 spaces of the north side wooden 

 structure had been plastered 

 with black and yellowish adobe 

 mud; but all the thus plastered 

 south wall of the hut had 

 crumbled off from the ravages 

 of time, and exposing the in- 



An Old Mexican Village Scenery, Alazan Crbek 



three central poles which were 

 only ten feet apart. Then, on the 

 north and south sides of this 

 structure a row of other, but 

 more slender haekberry poles 

 had been placed deeply into the 

 ground — all with a fork at the 

 upper end, over which long 

 cross-stems of haekberry were 

 securely' placed. These north 

 and south sides supporting 

 side rows of wooden logs 

 were only about four feet above 

 the ground, and the three twenty 

 feet long cross bars had been 

 covered by numbers of other 



terior of the hut, with only a few 

 of the supporting side stems left. 

 Some long nails had been driven 

 about a foot apart all along the 

 north and south side supporting 

 haekberry stems — to hang up 

 sundry domestic objects; and 

 a long wire had 'been strung 

 from one end of the supporting 

 stems to the other — undoubtedly 

 serving to hang up dry meat— • 

 the raw meat usually being first 

 well salted and then hung up -on 

 a line inside the yard or corral 

 or along a line stretched out over 

 .the fence and exposed to the sun. 



