Chap. VIII. INHABITANTS OF CHONTALES. 129 
retiring, hiding herself in the thicket, and then appearing 
again. Several times she stretched her arm towards her 
offspring, but as her eyes met mine, she again lost courage. 
At last the better feeling prevailed ; with a sudden desperate 
jump she reached the little thing, clasped it in her arm, and 
in an instant was out of sight. 
It was yet early in the afternoon when I reached the 
habitation of the outermost Nicaraguan settler in this di- 
rection, who gave me a friendly reception, and, when I left 
the next morning, refused to take payment, accepting only 
some powder and shot, of which I made him a present. 
The first of these two articles is rare and valuable in this 
district, the latter not to be had at all. The Chontalenos, 
or inhabitants of Chontales, are accustomed to hunt with 
bow and arrows, like the Indians. The small habitation 
in which I was received by Don Tomas S. was exceedingly 
clean, and nicely built of bamboo-reeds, to the exclusion 
of almost any other material. Even the furniture — con- 
sisting of a table, some benches and bedsteads — was com- 
posed of the same. Don Tomas, when I arrived, was 
occupied in preparing cheese, which is done on a large 
scale here, and he offered me a guacal full of fresh cream 
of as delicate a taste as I have ever enjoyed in Switzerland. 
The Nicaraguan cheese, however, is dry and of an inferior 
quality. But a large quantity is made and consumed in 
the country, and the inhabitants consider it a great deli- 
cacy. What is the cause of its inferior quality I cannot 
tell ; it cannot be in the nature of the milk, which is good 
everywhere in Nicaragua. As far as my eyes could reach 
from the habitation of Don Tomas, the savana was covered 
with herds. The scene would have reminded me of 
Switzerland, if the country had not been so different in its 
natural features from the region of the Alps. 
K 
