INDIANS BOATING ON ONE OF THE CANALS IN THE VALLEY OE MEXICO 



If these Indians were to live "the sanitary life" as thoroughly as they do "the simple life," 

 there would probably be more centenarians in Mexico than in any other country 



farious quests bewilder the beholder and 

 make him forget that he is on a journey 

 to see the lake dwellers in their primitive 

 homes. Tardily, then, the barga comes 

 into the clear pool in front of the medi- 

 eval toll-gate fortress, where all shipping 

 must go under a low bridge and where 

 the old-time toll collector, armed with a 

 pike, could threaten the recalcitrant with- 

 out much effort. 



Beyond the gateway begin more vistas 

 of a new world ! On this canal, bordered 

 with trees and spanned by quaint bridges, 

 is a perfect stream of craft, from the 

 slender dugout chaloupe to the square- 

 bowed flat-boat, hurrying on with every- 

 thing to feed, repair, and adorn the great 

 city. Freight is of all descriptions, but 

 one looks curiously on the small bundles 

 of grass and other green forage for ani- 

 mal feed, the pulque barrels, vegetables, 

 and flowers. 



The Indian boatmen, clad in white cot- 

 ton shirt and trousers, are working with 

 a will, sometimes wading in the canal 



and drawing the heavy-laden boats after 

 them ; and alas ! returning" to their para- 

 dise, a woman piloting her husband who 

 is the worse for pulque. 



LIEE IN LAKE-LAND 



There are pictures and pictures innu- 

 merable, full of human interest and 

 checkered with a marvelous play of light, 

 shadow, and reflection, as we pass by the 

 gardens and openings of the larger and 

 smaller canals. Here are embarkings and 

 arrivals loading, unloading, and prepar- 

 ing to lay by for the night in a snug slip 

 near where thatched houses play hide and 

 seek in the luxuriant foliage ; here a 

 group of energetic washerwomen by the 

 water margin, and there clouds of white 

 or gaudy, much-belabored clothes on the 

 bushes. No secrets are here ; all goes on 

 with the pulsing, urging force of labor 

 freely and openly before men. 



One remembers gardeners and gardens 

 in the sunny flower and vegetable plot? 

 and children peeping out on the canal 



73 



