FROM COBAN TO QUEZALTENANGO. 141 
towns. We crossed a river which flows into the Pacific 
at San Lnis; so the backbone of the continent was passed, 
and we were on the slopes of the setting sun. We or¬ 
dered our almuerzo in a little shop, and as we waited 
for it we watched the customers, — among them mozos, 
mostly for aguardiente, women for eggs, spices, chillis, 
and cord. Beggars came also, and among them an idiot 
girl (the only one of this class we had seen in the repub¬ 
lic) ; one received a drink, another a handful of red pep¬ 
pers, and others food. 
Before one o’clock we were in Quezaltenango, having 
walked six leagues in four hours and a half, excluding 
stops. The Hotel de Europe proved very comfortable, 
and the table was good. The Cerro Quemado (Burned 
Mountain), just overhanging the city, was a more attrac¬ 
tive volcano than the loftier Santa Maria; and I longed 
for time to climb to the broken crater from whose black¬ 
ened sides the huge lava-stream had descended towards 
the city (the ancient Exancul), turned suddenly when 
almost upon the outer walls, and then stopped forever. 
The market-place was very attractive ; for besides the 
bustle of the builders, who were piling up the cut and 
sculptured stone of the most imposing public edifice I 
have seen in Guatemala, the many cloth-merchants exhib¬ 
ited their brilliantly colored merchandise to great advan¬ 
tage. This is the centre of the trade in native cloths; 
and many beautiful and durable fabrics are woven here 
and in the neighborhood from cotton and wool. The 
stone generally used in building comes from the vol¬ 
canoes back of the town, and is a light-brown lava. The 
Plaza is double, — one half bounded by the church of San 
Juan de Dios, the stone penitentiary, and shops; and its 
