1894 
#?* 
Yal&lag 
eaoh sid® about 5 feet above and 3 feet each way from the center other 
heavy cables extended parallel to the bottom one with which they were 
united by a network of smaller vines so that the weight was borne e- 
qually by all of the cables, the passageway thus become a V-shaped one. 
The ends were fastened to some posts firmly planted near the bank and 
to some sycamore trees growing there. The posts extended much higher 
than the bridge and were guyed to various posts set in the banks farther 
back from the river. In order to have the bridge swing clear of the 
river it is hung about 15 or 18 feet from the ground at each end and a 
strong log ladder leads up to it. It is a very ingenious structure, 
wholly the work of the Indians who told me that they obtained the grape 
vines from the high mountains back from the river 10 or 12 miles. To 
gather the tons of vines necessary for this work was no small job, while 
to swing it in place was much more difficult. 
Prom here we climbed rapidly up the slope to an altitude of 3800 ft. 
and entered the large Zapoteco village of Yalalag. Penetrating the 
center of the town we found a small plaza with a fountain and a dense 
orowd of Zapoteco and Mije Indians gathered for market day. I soon 
found the President® in his office,- a dirty, mud walled, dirt floored 
room with a few benches and a table of the rudest make. He proved to 
be a more intelligent man than those I had met recently and at once read 
my letter and then took me to the adjacent school room where he permitted 
me to take up my quarters as there is now vacation and the town affords 
no accommodations to guests although it contains from 1500 to 2000 people. 
Next to the school room we found the mother of the school teaoher 
living and she agreed to furnish us with our meals while we were here. 
She was a talkative woman (Mestizo) and said she was only stopping here 
with her son for a short time until she oould join her husband in the 
town of Ixtlan where he had been appointed the secretary of the looal 
- 251 
