126 
GUATEMALA. 
The fiesta is in commemoration of the Conquest, — so 
we were told; and it was rather curious to see the de¬ 
generate Indios decorating their houses and holding high 
holiday far from the memory of the horrible tortures 
inflicted on their ancestors in this same conquest. Red 
flags hung from every door and window, —fit emblems of 
the bloody event! 
The excellent mozo Ramon Ghisli, who had come with 
us from Coban, was now ready to return. We would 
gladly have engaged this capital fellow to go with us 
all the way, but it was impossible; so I gave him extra 
pay, and with his carcaste 1 full of onions he started back 
on his long journey. Our mules were not very good, so 
we decided to send them back and get others here. 
Ramon had kept well up with the animals, had helped 
bravely in crossing the Chixoy, and had yielded implicit 
obedience to Santiago, who persisted in ordering about a 
man worth three of himself. Ramon got safely home, 
and delivered the mules all right. 
A little alcalde in green spectacles exerted himself to 
find animals for us, as we were anxious to get away, 
since the hotel was full of dirty children and even dirtier 
dogs, and the food far worse than anything we had 
1 It is well to explain that the framework used for carrying small articles 
on the hack is called kataure by the Caribs, and carcaste by the Indios of the 
interior. Earn on carried in his not only all my photographic apparatus, 
the camera and box of plates being carefully wrapped in water-proof mate¬ 
rial, — but also our cooking utensils and his own luggage. After he left us we 
found so much trouble in hiring suitable carcastes that we purchased one for 
a few reals and fitted it up with pita cords, which served our purpose very conve¬ 
niently. When a desirable view presented, a whistle brought the mozo to our 
side, and from ten to fifteen minutes only w T ere required to unpack, set up, 
expose one or two plates, repack, and remount our animals. It may be interest¬ 
ing to state that in all this long journey, where plates were carried in this way, 
not one was broken, nor was a piece of the apparatus damaged. 
