FROM COBAN TO QUEZALTENANGO. 
137 
(Solarium tuberosum). The Indios declared the potatoes 
had never been planted, but their ancestors had dug them 
from the remotest time, — en todo tiempo , senor . 
Around us on the mountain-top were spruce-trees of im¬ 
mense size, four feet in diameter, and pines two feet larger; 
and beneath these giants of the forest flocks of black 
sheep were feeding, watched by shepherdesses not many 
shades lighter. As black cloth is much worn by the Indios, 
they cultivate the black sheep rather than pay the dyer. 
Cactus on pine-trees, crimson sage, and a minute violet 
not an inch high, were novelties by the roadside. Not a 
few of the pine-trees had been hacked with machetes until 
a considerable niche was formed in the stem; and the pitch 
dripping into this receptacle was then fired to light a camp. 
We found no villages on this road, but we were seldom 
out of sight of some herdsman’s hovel. Late in the after¬ 
noon we came to the brow of the cliff that bounds the im¬ 
mense valley of Totonicapan on the east. The sun was 
low on the horizon before us, but I was absorbed in the 
beauty of this grand view 7 . On our left a waterfall dashed 
over the rocks; below us were the white walls of the In¬ 
dian City we had so greatly wished to see; roads and 
streams traversed the valley; and the whole surface, as 
well as the slopes far up the hills, was cut into numerous 
fields of wheat and maiz of many shades of green and 
brown. Far in the distance smoke rose over Quezalte- 
nango, and the broad highway between was plainly visible 
for many miles. My rnozo was close at hand, and in ten 
minutes I had two photographs caught in my box; after 
which we began the very steep descent. 
We found lodging at the Hotel de la Concordia. Our 
little room contained three board bedsteads and one wash- 
