SIX MONTHS IN MEXICO. 



175 



first observed by a group of nearly naked 

 children, who instantly set up a cry of terror, 

 and disappeared ; a general alarm was now 

 spread ; all the women were at the doors in 

 an instant, and appeared terrified at the sight 

 of strangers. A few inquiries, and a few 

 medias given to the inquisitive young ones, 

 however, soon dispelled their terrors, and a 

 fine healthy looking young woman, to whose 

 child we had given a little present, asked us 

 into her house, and seeing me notice her 

 furniture and domestic utensils, explained the 

 use of every thing, and then brought forward 

 her three children, who had concealed them- 

 selves in a corner, to shake hands with us. 

 The place was surrounded with chinampas, 

 or what have improperly been called floating 

 gardens ; her husband was at work on one of 

 these, and she called him to show it to us. 

 They are artificial islands, about fifty or sixty 

 yards long, and not more than four or five 



