474 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



SENOR ZOPILOTE IN A MOMENT OF" 

 RELAXATION 



Modern physicians do not agree with the 

 Mexican belief that the buzzard is a safe and 

 efficient scavenger. Instead, it is maintained 

 that he is a dangerous carrier of disease. In 

 Mexico, however, sanitation is entrusted in the 

 smaller towns to the joint efforts of the buz- 

 zards, the pigs, and the dogs (see page 485). 



ward the friars and Cabeza de Yaca — to 

 find that we must supply ourselves with 

 gold for the journey down the west coast. 



Thanks to the geyser of paper money 

 that burst into Mexico under the revo- 

 lutionists, beginning with Carranza and 

 enthusiastically furthered by every revo- 

 lutionary general who could commandeer 

 a printing-press, there is no governmental 

 credit whatever. Paper money is not ac- 

 cepted at any price for anything. 



No one will ever know how many mil- 

 lions of paper pesos were emitted by the 

 various officials who had rights over 

 printing-presses. There is even a story 

 of a local merchant who bought a mail- 

 order press and printed his own issue on 

 soap wrappers. 



But this is no place in which to review 



Mexico's financial history of the past 



decade. The immediate pinch was that 

 we looked lopsided, like badly packed 

 mules, because of the hunks of gold that 

 thrust out the pockets of our thin 

 clothes. 



It is necessary to carry sufficient gold, 

 because banks have almost ceased to exist 

 in Mexico. Carranza wrecked the bank- 

 ing system. Now and then a merchant 

 will cash a bank draft or a traveler's 

 check on the United States, and then that 

 draft or check goes floating about through 

 Mexico, like a paper Flying Dutchman, 

 until it is worn to tatters. 



I have seen checks to which long kite- 

 tails of paper had been pasted to hold the 

 added endorsements. 



AMERICAN GREENBACKS HAVE NO PRES- 

 TIGE IN MEXICO 



We had a theory that we could carry 

 our own greenbacks and escape the back- 

 breaking burden of gold ; but that theory 

 had been held by many people before us, 

 and the Mexican Government had taken 

 steps to defeat it. 



American gold is accepted at par in 

 Mexico, but American paper money is 

 specifically ruled against. One may not 

 buy railroad tickets or pay hotel bills or 

 hire mules or get food with it. 



Hardly a day passes that a resident 

 American does not try to buy Mexican 

 gold of the newcomer with good Amer- 

 ican dollars. At first the newcomer is 

 generous and accommodating. Eventu- 

 ally he changes. 



Because there are few banks and few 

 bank checks in Mexico, business is con- 

 ducted either upon a spot cash or a long- 

 credit basis. If you have no credit, you 

 pay cash. If your credit is very good in- 

 deed, the day of payment is deferred at 

 an estate-eating interest. 



The ordinary across-the-counter trans- 

 actions are cared for at weekly settling 

 days. Each business house has a posted 

 sign stating that bills due will be paid on 

 such and such a day of the week. The 

 merchants send their runners around to 

 each other, clearing-house fashion, to re- 

 ceive and pay out gold. 



It is little wonder that banditry has 

 been a fairly successful business in a 

 country in which each cellar is a suspected 

 bank vault. 



