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GUATEMALA. 
of burden, both biped and quadruped, unloaded. The 
Jefe had telegraphed to Santo Tomas for horses and a 
mozo, and we were assured that after almuerzo these 
would be ready. In this faith we strolled about the 
town. The church, as usual, attracted our attention; and 
here for the first time we saw the Indios burning in¬ 
cense, which seemed to be gum copal, or precisely the 
same material their ancestors used in idol worship. Mari¬ 
golds were strewed all over the floor, and the odor was 
oppressive, even without the incense and innumerable 
candles. The altar was covered with plates of beaten 
silver of no very good workmanship. An image of a 
man on horseback, with a beggar by his side, excited our 
curiosity, which was not destined to be satisfied, although 
our mozo declared it was Santiago (Saint James). We 
pushed our explorations outside the church, and climbed 
by an external staircase to the organ-loft, which was 
floored with hewn boards not otherwise smoothed. An 
ancient organ, hardly larger than an ordinary davenport, 
stood in the midst, wholly apart from the bellows, which 
were worked by a suspended lever much as an ordinary 
forge-bellows. The keys were deeply worn by long use, 
horny fingers, or both, and they covered two octaves and 
a half; the stops were simply strips of hard wood pro¬ 
jecting from the side of the case, and beyond the reach 
of the organist . 1 The locks on all the doors were of 
1 There were many similar organs in the old churches, — some, indeed, re¬ 
moved to the lumber-rooms ; but they were so securely fastened together that 
I could not get at the internal mechanism without too much disturbance, and 
I concluded that the instruments were imported entire. No modern organs of 
any size were seen outside of the metropolitan cathedrals; and yet even a large 
organ is very easy to transport. One little instrument that I tried was not in 
tune, but the pipe-tones were good. In the old church at Trujillo Frank 
found a modern French cabinet-organ of remarkably sweet tones. 
