290 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



with us. This was a great privation ; a woman was 

 desirable, not, as the reader may suppose, for embel- 

 lishment, but to make tortillas. These, to be tolerable, 

 must be eaten the moment they are baked; but we 

 were obliged to make an arrangement with the alcalde 

 to send them out daily with the product of our cow. 



Our turn-out was equal to anything we had had on the 

 road. One Indian set off with a cowhide trunk on his 

 back, supported by a bark string, as the groundwork of 

 his load, while on each side hung by a bark string a 

 fowl wrapped in plantain leaves, the head and tail only 

 being visible. Another had on the top of his trunk a 

 live turkey, with its legs tied and wings expanded, 

 like a spread eagle. Another had on each side of his 

 load strings of eggs, each egg being wrapped carefully 

 in a husk of corn, and all fastened like onions on a 

 bark string. Cooking utensils and water-jar were 

 mounted on the backs of other Indians, and contained 

 rice, beans, sugar, chocolate, &c. ; strings of pork and 

 bunches of plantains were pendent ; and Juan carried 

 in his arms our travelling tin coffee-canister filled with 

 lard, which in that country was always in a liquid state. 



At half past seven we left the village. For a short 

 distance the road was open, but very soon we entered a 

 forest, which continued unbroken to the ruins, and prob- 

 ably many miles beyond. The road was a mere Indian 

 footpath, the branches of the trees, beaten down and 

 heavy with the rain, hanging so low that we were 

 obliged to stoop constantly, and very soon our hats and 

 coats were perfectly wet. From the thickness of the 

 foliage the morning sun could not dry up the deluge of 

 the night before. The ground was very muddy, bro- 

 ken by streams swollen by the early rains, with gullies 

 in which the mules floundered and stuck fast, in some 



