DESCRIPTION OF A HUT. 



109 



a skilful physician near her, answered for him, and I re- 

 turned to relieve Mr. Catherwood, and add another to 

 his list of patients. The whole party escorted us to the 

 hut, bringing along only the mule that carried the ham- 

 mocks ; and by the addition of Mr, C. to the medical 

 corps, and a mysterious display of drawing materials 

 and measuring rods, the poor woman's fever seemed 

 frightened away. 



The hut stood on the edge of a clearing, on the 

 ground once covered by the city, with a stone frag- 

 ment, hollowed out and used as a drinking-vessel 

 for cattle, almost at the very door. The clearing was 

 planted with corn and tobacco, and bounded on each 

 side by the forest. The hut was about sixteen feet 

 square, with a peaked roof, thatched with husks of In- 

 dian corn, made by setting in the ground two upright 

 poles w4th crotches, in which another pole was laid to 

 support the peak of the roof, and similar supports on 

 each side, but only about four feet high. The gable 

 €nd was the front, and one half of it was thatched 

 with corn-leaves, while the other remained open. The 

 back part was thatched, and piled up against it was 

 Indian corn three ears deep. On one side the pile 

 was unbroken, but on the other it was used down to 

 within three or four feet of the ground. In the corner 

 in front was the bed of Don Miguel and his wife, pro- 

 tected by a bull's hide fastened at the head and side. 

 The furniture -consisted of a stone roller for mashing 

 corn, and a comal or earthen griddle for baking tortil- 

 las ; and on a rude shelf over the bed were two boxes, 

 which contained the wardrobe and all the property of 

 Don Miguel and his wife, except Bartalo, their son and 

 heir, an overgrown lad of twenty, whose naked body 

 seemed to have burst up out of a pair of boy's trou- 



10 



