NOTES ON SOUTHERN MEXICO 



315 



tance as the cotton, with four or five 

 stalks in each hill. Very few sterile 

 stalks could be found, and most of the 

 stalks bore two or three well formed 

 though rather small ears. The plants be- 

 fore being doubled must have been about 

 8 feet high. 



The greater part of the inhabitants of 

 this place are pure Indian. The men 

 have straight, coarse, black hair reaching 

 almost to their shoulders. The lips are 

 thick, but otherwise the features are 

 quite like those of the Indians of Guate- 

 mala. They wear a red cloth, tied like 

 a turban, about the head, a short "guipil" 

 or shirt like that of the women, and full 

 white trousers that are usually tied in 

 at the bottom, making them look like 

 Dutch trousers. The women are very 

 short and well formed. They wear a 

 short "guipil," usually white or with very 

 little color, and a dark-blue cloth wrapped 

 around the hips. Their chief decoration 

 takes the form of embroidery of this blue 

 cloth, which they do in silk of various 

 colors. Some of the more elaborate 

 cloths are valued as high as $10 or $12 

 gold. 



From San Bartolome the road passes 

 around the base of the mountain on 

 which the town is located, and at a dis- 

 tance of about one league enters the oak 

 forest. Soon after this the pines appear 

 and the characteristic plants of the lower 

 levels disappear. 



Our course led up the valley of a small 

 river, along the banks of which the vege- 

 tation was more luxuriant, mahogany 

 and cedar trees being not uncommon. At 

 an elevation of 4,000 feet, the country 

 became more open and Brahea palms ap- 

 peared. Our road continued to rise until 

 it crossed a high ridge amid magnificent 

 pines and oaks, and the town of Teopisco 

 came into view in a flat valley entirely 

 surrounded by high mountains. The ele- 

 vation of the town is 5,300 feet, and the 

 night before our arrival there had been 

 a hard frost and nearly all the vegetation 

 was black. We spent a night at Teo- 

 pisco, and in the morning the white frost 

 could again be seen on the ground and 

 roofs. 



We left for San Cristobal early in the 



morning of December 31. The road con- 

 tinued to ascend and for nearly the whole 

 day we traveled through magnificent for- 

 ests of pine and oak. The trees were 

 very large, with little or no undergrowth, 

 the absence of which is probably due to 

 the sheep, which are pastured in the for- 

 est in large numbers. Toward night we 

 crossed a high ridge, probably 7,000 feet, 

 and descended to the valley in which San 

 Cristobal is located. 



San Cristobal, like Bartolome, was at 

 one time the capital of the State, but its 

 inaccessibility was sufficient reason for 

 removing the seat of government. It is 

 more closely associated with the civiliza- 

 tion of the western part of Guatemala 

 than with other parts of the State of 

 Chiapas. Frost occurred every night of 

 our stay and is usual at this time of year. 

 Here we secured seed of a wheat which 

 is cultivated on the very steep slopes near 

 the tops of the mountains about the 

 town, in the hope that the variety might 

 be of some historic interest, this region 

 being so isolated that the variety is prob- 

 ably one that has been grown here from 

 very remote times. 



Seeds of a fine avocado were secured. 

 As this entire region is subject to frost, 

 snow sometimes falling at San Cristobal, 

 the variety will probably prove to be re- 

 sistant to cold. The exact locality from 

 which the fruit came could not be ascer- 

 tained, but trees were seen which had 

 withstood the frost better than orange 

 trees and where most of the vegetation 

 was killed back. 



There is a considerable Indian popula- 

 tion about San Cristobal. They dress in 

 coarse woolen blankets with a hole for 

 the head, or in short woolen shirts. They 

 wear very low-crowned straw hats deco- 

 rated with ribbons, which give them a 

 very ludicrous appearance. The stream- 

 ers on the hats indicate that the man is 

 unmarried and has a sweetheart. 



We started on our return for Tuxtla 

 on the morning of January 2, taking the 

 road that leads through Ixtapa. 



The road descends steadily. For a long 

 distance practically the only trees are the 

 oaks, and for three or four leagues these 

 have been pollarded to secure fire-wood 



