GUATEMALA CITY. 
183 
showy monuments have been erected since the prohibition 
of burial within the churches, though but few of them are 
in good taste. A far pleasanter visit was to the “ Bola de 
Oro” baths, near the Teatro Nacional, where we had two 
good bath-rooms, with douche and plunge, all for four 
reals. The water in the city is not good, and in the 
baths its turbid character was disagreeable. The pres¬ 
sure on the mains is regulated by water-towers, usually 
built into the house ; and not being sufficient to supply 
a douche, the water for this purpose has to be pumped 
into an elevated cistern. From the bath we went to an 
exhibition of native products and industries in the build¬ 
ing of the Institute Nacional. The exhibition was a 
good one, and some of the products — as chocolate, rice, 
sugar, and wax — were of exceedingly high quality. 
More interesting to me was the Institute itself. Origi¬ 
nally a monastery, the Government confiscated it when 
the religious orders were suppressed, and President Barrios 
established in the vacant halls a college which would be 
creditable to any country. We went through the reci¬ 
tation-rooms, the physical laboratory, the dormitories, — 
where the iron bedsteads looked neat and comfortable, — 
into the printing-room; thence through the garden to the 
menagerie, where were many good specimens of native 
beasts and birds. We next visited the meteorological ob¬ 
servatory, the faculty room, where hung a dismal paint¬ 
ing of some poor Indios being torn to pieces by dogs at 
the command of the Conquistadores, and finally the mu¬ 
seum, where, together with stuffed animals and birds, a 
series of specimens of native woods (labelled only with 
native names), minerals, ores, and the rest, we found a 
choice collection of antiquities. Here on the walls w r ere 
