THE HUMAN BEAST OF BURDEN. 279 



ben-coop with a dozen or twenty hens, and others were conveying laden 

 barrels and various household goods. They had come, they said, from 

 San Luis Potosi, not less than 50 miles distant. These cargadores will 

 cover 30 miles a day for a week or more, going from ocean to Gulf. 



Fig. 32. 

 Peddlfk with rude barrow. Mexico. 



(After a figure in the U.S. National Museum, dy a Guadalajara potter. ) 



11 During a ride which I made over the Andes, on the Mexican National 

 Eailroad, these persistent carriers were almost always in sight from the 

 car windows, the peons and burros following each other up and down 

 the slopes. The vice-president of the road, Thomas C. Purely, whose 

 guest I was, said, as we watched these animated trains advancing on 

 parallel lines, ' There is our rival. That is the only transportation 

 company we fear. If it were not for that line, this country would treble 

 its railroads next year, and the roads would double their profits. We 

 are combating the custom of centuries. Those fellows carry on their 

 backs to Mexico the entire crops of great haciendas far over the mount- 

 ains. I have been and sat down with a wealthy and enterprising haci- 

 endado, and explained to him that we could do his carrying in a quarter 

 of the time and for half the cost, and have seen him refuse to change, 

 and stubbornly stick to the old method. I was never before so im- 

 pressed with the tremendous force of habit.' n 



All the salt produced in Salinas is carried away on the backs and heads 

 of men, who come for it (many from great distances) and sell it at home 

 or in a suitable market. In Guatemala everything — with the exception 

 of grain, vegetables, and sugar, which are transported on beasts of 

 burden — is carried on the heads of meu, there being no cart-road of any 

 length except that from the port to the capital. The articles to be car- 

 ried are adjusted into a package higher than wide, and secured by a 

 net, called red. To the back part of this pack, near its base, is fastened 



