FROM COBAN TO QUEZALTENANGO. 
119 
were even more troublesome than usual. Our beds were 
made up in the dining-room, and we had pillows and 
sheets again, — the only good things this posada afforded. 
The morning was overcast; but Frank and I walked to 
the campo santo, nearly a mile from town. High walls 
of adobe surrounded it, and a locked gate kept us out; but 
we peered in over the heaps of white lilies (Lilium can- 
didum ) and marigolds offered at the entrance, and saw 
masonry tombs of very bizarre forms, some painted white, 
others red and blue, or blue and white, in checks. The 
meadows all around were intersected by wide ditches 
which we had no little trouble in crossing, the bare legs 
of the natives rendering bridges quite unnecessary. When 
one was beyond our jump we threw in the washing-stones 
on the bank until we had enough for stepping-stones. 
Returning to town, we paid our respects to the Jefe poli¬ 
tico, Don Antonio Rivera, who is a young man exceedingly 
polite and obliging, and we found practice made it much 
easier to converse than when we met the Governor of Co¬ 
ban. Don Antonio showed us fine specimens of the woods 
of his neighborhood which had been prepared for an exhibi¬ 
tion in Guatemala City; but he could not tell us the 
names, and sent for an old Indio who was better informed. 
This Indio also served to show us what the Jefe evi¬ 
dently considered a very amusing garment, — his trousers, 
which were in the usual black woollen jerga, cut up in 
front as high as mid thigh, so that they can be rolled up 
behind when the wearer girds up his loins to work. 
Cloths of various kinds were brought in for our inspection, 
and the prices given. These seemed high, for the material 
is only a vara (thirty-three inches) wide, and is sold in vara 
lengths. Not satisfied with showing us all that the market 
