188 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



tral America. Occasionally the branches were bare- 

 ly high enough to allow mules to pass, and then 

 I was obliged to dismount, and trudge through the 

 mud on foot. At eight o'clock we came to an open 

 savanna, and saw a high mound with ruins on the 

 top, bearing south, about a mile distant. It was call- 

 ed, as the mayoral said, Senuisacal. I was strongly 

 tempted to turn aside and examine it, but, on ac- 

 count of the thickness of the cane-brake and the 

 mud, it would have been impossible to reach it, and 

 the mayoral said that it was entirely in ruins. 



In half an hour we came into a clear and open 

 country, and at ten we entered the camino real for 

 Jalacho, a broad and open road, passable for cale- 

 sas. Up to this time we had not seen a single hab- 

 itation or met a human being, and now the road 

 was literally thronged with people moving on to the 

 fair, with whose clean garments my mud-stained 

 clothes contrasted very unfavourably. There were 

 Indians, Mestizoes, and white people on horseback, 

 muleback, and on foot, men, women, and children, 

 many carrying on their backs things to sell, in pe- 

 taquillas, or long baskets of straw ; whole families, 

 sometimes half a village moving in company; and I 

 fell in behind a woman perched on a loaded horse, 

 with a child in her arms, and a little fellow behind, 

 his legs stretched out nearly straight to span the 

 horse's flanks, and both arms clasping her substan- 

 tial body to keep himself from slipping off. We 

 passed parties sitting in the shade to rest or eat, and 



