1895 
San Marcos 
things merely did as she was accustomed. Some roast meat was brought 
on uncut one night and no knife provided, so I asked for a clean knife 
to carve it. She looked about the table and then asked an Indian who 
was eating at the foot of the table for the knife he was eating with 
(he was a remarkable exception in this). He wiped the knife on the 
tablecloth and handed it to her but I hastily interposed my own knife 
I 
and afterward managed to get along without expecting much refinement 
1 \ 11 V 4 1 t 
) 
of service. 
Stopping at this place was a young Freneh-Jtaaeriean, Paul Silva, who 
y * .. 
is hunting this coast with 4 native hunters after plumes of the white 
heron. So far he has found them scarce and rather scattered. He has 
been killing the birds sinoe December for the few plumes some have and 
the 25^ he gets out of each skin. He reports alligators as being common 
in the lagoons of the coast here. These do considerable damage to stock 
and a few oases are told of their having killed people. Seme are said 
to attain great siae. 
Finally xiy health became so that I could proceed on the journey and 
we left here on the 8th and travelled all day in a SE course and were 
forced to keep going until nightfall overtook us before we reached the 
town of Copala. 
There we got permission to stop overnight at the house of the 
storekeeper here named Macario Figueroa. Here we found the storekeeper 
a half caste Spanish-Indian who does considerable business and is worth 
some property. He is married to an Indian woman and had a boy of about 
5 or S running about naked. F or supper we had dried meat, coffee, tor¬ 
tillas, and pepper sauce, ^or breakfast, the same. The meat and sauoe 
were put on each in a single plate and they evidently expected two of 
us to eat out of the some dish. When I asked for a couple of plates to 
eat from, the woman appeared surprised and asked what I wished them for. 
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