COUNTRY HOTEL, 
167 
INDIAN WITH PANNIER, 
INDIAN SHEPHEBP 
After about four hours' journey in this desolation, the clouds suddenly 
broke to the southward, revealing the blue sky between masses of sullen 
vapor, and thus we reached our breakfasting house on the top oi the 
mountain. „ , , r ..u * 
Imao-ine a mud-hole, (not a regular lake of mud, but a mass of that 
clayey^ oozey, grayish substance, which sucks your feet at every step,) 
surrounded by eight huts, built of logs and reeds, stuck into the watery 
earth and thatched with palm leaves. This was the stage breakfastmg 
station, on the road from Mexico to Cuernavaca ! We asked for " the 
house •" and a hut, a little more open than the rest, was pointed out. It 
was in two divisions, one being closed with reeds, and the other entirely 
exposed, along one side of which was spread a rough board supported on 
four sticks covered with a dirty cloth. It was the principal hotel f 
There was no denying that prospects were most unpromising, but we 
were too hungry to wait longer for food. We asked for breakfast, bm 
