196 
GUATEMALA. 
highway during the past few days, and now we saw the 
volcanoes of Salvador, one of wdiich was smoking, which I 
supposed to be Izalco. Blocks of lava were scattered all 
over the plain, as if some bed of lava had been broken up 
and brought down in fragments by an avalanche. The 
stone was well suited for the manufacture of metatles, or 
tortilla-stones, and fragments were scattered all about, as 
well as several half-finished metatles, spoiled by an un¬ 
lucky blow. We could not find any one at work, and 
did not learn with what tools this rather difficult stone¬ 
cutting is accomplished. The honey of Suchitan is very 
good, perhaps made partly from acacia-flowers; its flavor 
being not unlike that of the famous honey of Auvergne 
in France, — also, a region of extinct volcanoes. 
We arrived at Santa Catarina about three in the after¬ 
noon ; there, while our animals rested and fed in front of 
the cabildo, we bespoke a comida at a little cook-shop in 
the Plaza, and then explored the poor little church, which 
was dark, windowless, and wholly bespattered with bat- 
filth, pictures, crucifix and all. We beat a hasty 
retreat from this unseemly sanctuary; and after a wash 
in the public fountain, returned to the cocina , where we 
were served with tortillas, fried eggs, plantains, frijoles, 
and coffee, — for which we paid three reals, or thirty-seven 
and a half cents. As w r e left the town we passed a noisy 
trapiche , or sugar-mill, consisting of three vertical wooden 
rollers turned by four oxen. It sounded very like one of 
the ancient cider-mills in New England. A good mill 
could make a fair percentage of sugar out of the crushed 
cane passing through these rollers. 
From the town we found a rather steep descent, and at 
the bottom a large river to ford, whose bed was full of 
