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INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



Doctor Cabot's presence in the village was, of 

 course, generally known, and though it was rather 

 prejudicial to his reputation as a medical man to be 

 ill himself, he did not fail to have patients. His 

 fame as a curer of biscos had reached this place, 

 but, fortunately for his quiet, there was only one 

 squinter among the inhabitants, though his was vio- 

 lent enough for a whole village. In the afternoon 

 this man applied for relief. Doctor Cabot told 

 him that his hand was not yet steady enough to per- 

 form the operation, and that I was going away the 

 next day ; but this by no means satisfied him. It 

 happened, however, that a gentleman present, who 

 was consulting the doctor on some ailment of his 

 own, mentioned incidentally that one of the doctor's 

 patients at Merida had lost the eye, though he add- 

 ed that the loss was not ascribed to the operation, 

 but to subsequent bad treatment. This story, as we 

 afterward learned, was entirely without foundation, 

 but it had its effect upon the bisco, who rolled his 

 eye toward the door so violently that the rest of 

 him followed, and he never came near the doctor 

 again. His only operation that day was upon the 

 wife of the proprietor of San Francisco, whose head 

 he laid open, and took out a hideous wen. 



I have mentioned the extraordinary stillness of 

 this place. Every night, however, since my arrival, 

 this stillness had been broken by the canting, sing- 

 ing tones of a boy calling out the numbers of the 

 loteria. Preparations were making for a village fete 



