ue enough; but this animal, at least, is innocent of all
these misdeeds, for it lives too far from any town."

This scene had quite delighted Lucien. I acquainted him with the fact
that opossums, kangaroos, and several other animals of the kind, the
females of which are provided with a pouch to shelter the young ones,
are, for this reason, called _marsupials_.

The opossum is very common in Mexico. Its long, pointed, and
deeply-divided muzzle is armed with fifty-two formidable teeth, although
the animal feeds principally on eggs, insects, and birds. The young of
those species which are unprovided with the pouch, as soon as they are
able to walk, climb up on their mother's back and intertwine their tails
with hers, which she carries over her back for this purpose. This
instinct is perhaps more curious than that which leads them to dart into
their mother's protecting pouch.

Time was getting on; it now became important for us to reach the spot
where the moles were; and l'Encuerado predicted good sport there without
firing off his gun.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XVI.

THE EARTH-NUTS.--A WILD-CAT'S FEAST.--ANOTHER EXPLORING EXPEDITION TO
THE CAVE.--THE BATS.--EXCAVATIONS IN A TOMB.

While making our way through the brush-wood, in the hopes of putting up
some game of a more appetizing nature than the _opossum_, our feet
became entangled in the fibrous and creeping branches of the earth-nut,
called by the Indians _tlalcacahuatl_. Although the stems were still
covered with white flowers, l'Encuerado dug up the soil in which the
fruit had buried itself in order to complete its ripening, and there
found a quantity. The _tlalcacahuatl_, which is classed by botanists in
the leguminous order, produces yellowish, wrinkled pods, each containing
three or four kernels, which are eaten after being roasted in their
shells; their taste is something like that of a chestnut. It is now
cultivated to some extent in Europe, and the nut produces an oil which
does not readily turn rancid, and is used in Spain in the manufacture of
soap.

Lucien and l'Encuerado were the most pleased at the discovery, for they
were very fond of these earth-nuts, which, on the days of religions
festivals, are sold by heaps in front of the Mexican churches.

"It is the day but one after Ascension-day," cried the Indian; "we
certainly can not hear Mass, but, at all events, we can try to please
God by eating pea-nuts in His honor."