GUAYEA. 
61 
houses, and orderly figures moved about: the 
men in white trousers and shirts, with a knotted 
scarlet handkerchief round their waists, and 
sometimes a scarlet poncho thrown across their 
shoulders. The whole place gave a curious 
impression of being a set scene in a theatre, and 
over it all there hung a subdued atmosphere that 
made itself felt like something tangible. 
The hotel was built on two sides of a court¬ 
yard, and through the barred windows we 
looked at night on to a large ombu tree that 
