STORM. 



193 



This place, so well adapted to exercise the 

 patience of travellers, was a sort of farm- 

 house, or cottage, the occupier of which 

 obtained a subsistence by means of keep- 

 ing mules and slaughtering cattle. There 

 are in these wilds many houses of this de- 

 scription ; their style of living is, in gene- 

 ral, nearly similar ; sometimes the great- 

 grandfather, grandfather, parents, and chil- 

 dren, four generations, all live together in 

 the same dwelling, each set having a se- 

 parate apartment, but destitute of almost 

 all the comforts of life. 



I had to wait about an hour before the 

 mules were caught, and in readiness. Dur- 

 ing this time a great change for the worse 

 took place in the weather ; instead of the 

 beautiful appearance of the sky, which the 

 morning had yielded, heavy clouds de- 

 scended from the mountains, bringing with 

 them torrents of rain : it was in the midst 



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