SIX MONTHS IN MEXICO. 215 



little garden attached to them. The villages, 

 in favourable situations, are so enclosed and 

 screened by the luxuriant foliage in which 

 they are enveloped, that a stranger may pass 

 without observing them. Their neat simple 

 residences have often afforded me much plea- 

 sure : — their bed, a mat spread on the floor, 

 or a net suspended from the ceiling — a few 

 earthen vessels and calibashes — with the stone 

 for preparing their tortilios, or bread of 

 Indian corn — form the bulk of their earthly 

 goods. The rude figure or print of a Saint, 

 and generally a few toys of earthenware, serve 

 as ornaments, and constitute their finery; — 

 yet I have never seen a people more truly 

 happy and contented. 



