sent. From now on I was called compadre
by most of the people in the village, and that sacred relationship was
established between myself and the baby's family, which is deemed of
so much importance in the life of the Mexicans. During ten years of
travel and ethnological activity I have never met the child again,
but I hope that he is getting on well.

How beautifully fresh the country looked as we travelled southward
in Northern Sonora! The dreary plains of Arizona gave way to a more
varied landscape, with picturesque hills studded with oaks and mountain
cedars. Along the rivers cottonwood was especially noticeable. There
was also an abundance of wild-grape vines. Everywhere near the shady
creeks I saw the evening primrose, brilliantly yellow, while the
intense, carmine-red flowers of the lobelia peeped out from under the
shrubs. But of all the flowers on the banks of the streams, the most
remarkable was the exquisitely beautiful _Datura meteloides_, with
its gorgeous white crown, six inches long and four inches wide. We
saw one cluster of this creeper fully fifty feet in circumference. It
is well known among the Navajo Indians that the root of this plant,
when eaten, acts as a powerful stimulant; but the better class among
the tribe look upon it with disfavour, as its use often leads to
madness and death. The effect of the poison is cumulative, and the
Indians under its influence, like the Malays, run amuck and try to
kill everybody they meet.

There is also found a species of cactus, with a root which looks like
an enormous carrot. One small plant had a root four feet long. It is
used as soap.

Among the birds, doves and flycatchers were most commonly seen, one
species of the latter frequently dazzling our eyes with its brilliant
vermilion plumage.

The men I had hired before crossing the border did not work at all well
with the Mexicans. They generally considered themselves vastly superior
to the latter, whom they did not recognise as "white men." Personally,
I preferred the Mexicans, who were obedient, obliging, and less lawless
than the rough, mixed-white citizens of the American Southwest. As
an illustration of the moral status of the frontier population, I may
relate that when about sixty miles south of the border, a custom-house
official stationed in the neighbourhood insisted upon examining all my
baggage, which, of course, would have involved a lot of trouble. He
was neither worse nor better than other c