1895 
Cofre da 
Perote 
entrance and then entered the inner apartment which had for one side 
the surface of a huge block of lava that had fallen from a neighbearing 
cliff. Against this the jacal had been built. The room was about 
fifteen feat square and was used by the man and woman with four children 
of various ages, and four men who had come after loads of snow and been 
delayed by the storm. These, \rith my party of five, and several dogs 
of the establishment, and an occasional invading goat from the herd that 
occupied the shed in. front, made the place pretty well crowded. 
Fortunately there was a fair stock of pitch pine at hand and the 
roof turned the raxn for the present, although every gust of wind drove 
it through the broad openings in the walls, 
f 
It appeared that the mm here is in charge of a store of snow which 
is gathered here in January and packed firmly in some half underground 
sheds at the north base of a cliff here and is drawn on during the rest 
of the year to supply ice or snow to Jalapa and other towns within 50 
or 75 miles* The men assured me that they sometimes carried mule loads 
of .show packed solidly in sacks and surrounded by dry grass to towns in 
the hot country nearly one hundred miles away with only a comparatively 
small loss by melting* They travel only at night and when the sun is 
4 
very low remaining in cool shady places during the day. 
The place whero we were confined was muddy and filthy from its long 
occupation and the walls and ceiling were hung with a heavy coating of 
soot from the pitch pine fires that were burning almost constantly in 
the middle of the floor for cooking or warmth. The woman carried on 
her household operations here during the day. These were of a very 
simple character. Corn was put into a large earthen jar with water 
and some burnt lime each day and allowed to remain for 12 or 15 hours 
?rtien it became soft and the tough skin was rendered easily frayed. The 
corn was then taken out and ground on the metate with a long stone grind- 
187 
