FROM COBAN TO QUEZALTENANGO. 139 
thorough idolaters still, with hardly the dimmest idea of 
the Christian religion. They moreover dislike foreigners, 
as we found to our cost. The fountain and sun-dial in 
the old Plaza were both much out of repair, and in the 
Plaza Nueva the fountain supported a traditional Indian 
fresh from the shield of Massachusetts. Made originally, 
as other men are, without clothes, he had been girt with 
stucco, — doubtless because of the cool weather and his 
damp station. 
Generally the streets were paved, and drained in the mid¬ 
dle. They intersected at right angles; and as the houses 
had few outside windows and the courtyard gates were 
almost always closed, the town had a very dull, deserted 
look. We did peep into some doors and windows, in a 
way I should hardly tolerate in any other barbarian; and 
by one of these window-peeps we discovered a weaver 
at work, who invited us to enter. The loom had two 
harnesses worked by the foot of the weaver, and twelve 
more pulled by a boy at the side; the bobbins were wound 
on bits of small bambu. It was a long way back in the 
series of the evolution of a modern carpet-loom, and yet it 
did its work exceedingly well, if slowly. This art of weav¬ 
ing has been practised in this city from most ancient 
times, and the Indios declare that the same utensils have 
been used, without essential modification. All the looms 
we saw were on one pattern, and they could hardly have 
been simpler. I bought for four dollars a large woollen 
bed-cover woven in elaborate design, which kept us warm 
while we were in these highlands. 
We called on the Jefe again as he was marrying several 
couples, and he repeated his promise to procure mules for 
lls before one o’clock; so we left him for a while and 
