ACROSS THE CONTINENT, WESTWARD TO COBAN. 93 
every direction when needed. Birds hung in cages, and 
flowers in baskets ; and the neglige air of everything, ex¬ 
cept the neat little Indian women who did the household 
work, added to the comfortable feeling the place inspired. 
We walked up a paved street an eighth of a mile to 
the casa municipal, and, passing an arched gateway in the 
clock-tower, entered a spacious plaza, with the cabildo on 
our left and the foundations of the new palace on the 
The Cabildo of Coban. 
brow of the hill opposite. Directly before us was the 
church and connected buildings,—once a college of priests, 
since confiscated by the Government, and now used as 
a music-school, blacksmith’s shop, and for other purposes. 
The main part of the Plaza was paved; and here were 
congregated several hundred Indios, mostly of the Quekchi 
tribe, buying, selling, and bartering. We bought twenty- 
five fine granadillas (fruit of the passion-flower) for a 
medio, and as many jocotes for the same price. Deli- 
