ye, where fruit trees are in gorgeous bloom,
and where wild flowers add a charm in the very midst of cheerless, arid
surroundings. This inviting and thrifty aspect is produced entirely by
the hoe in the hands of the simple, industrious natives, with no other
aid than that of water. The peons are most efficient though unconscious
engineers, diverting a supply of water from the distant mountain
streams with marvelous ingenuity and success. No practical operator,
with every modern appliance and the most delicate instruments, could
strike more correct levels than do these natives with the eye and the
hoe alone. Upon entering one of the adobe cabins at the ever-open
door,--there are no windows,--we found the flat roof to be slightly
slanted to throw off the rain, having four or five wooden beams upon
which a few boards and rough sticks were nailed. On the top of these a
foot or more of earth is deposited. This primitive covering Nature
enamels with moss and dainty wild flowers. But this represents the
better class of cabin, the majority having only a thatched covering
supported by small branches of trees trimmed for the purpose, over which
are placed dried banana and maguey leaves. Some of the floors had stone
tiles, but most of them consisted of the uncovered earth. These last
must be wretchedly unwholesome in the brief rainy season. Swarthy,
unclad children were as numerous and active as young chickens. In more
than one of the cabins, dark-hued native women, wearing only a cotton
cloth wound around the lower part of their bodies from the middle, and a
short cotton waist over the shoulders without sleeves, knelt upon the
ground kneading tortillas between a flat, inclined stone and a long,
narrow one, just as their ancestors had done for centuries. Indeed, all
through Mexico one is surprised to see how little change has probably
taken place in the features of the people, their manner of living, their
dress and customs, since the days of the Montezumas. The traveler is
struck with the strong resemblance of Castano to an Egyptian village.
One sees its counterpart almost anywhere between Cairo and the first
cataract on the Nile. Clouds of black, long-tailed jackdaws flew over
our heads and settled abruptly here and there. Goats and donkeys dispute
the dusty roadway with the curious stranger, while women, with babies
hanging upon their backs, half concealed their dark-brown faces in red
or light blue rebosas, and peered at us with