en and women passed my camp,
some on horseback, others walking. One of the riders played the violin,
another one beat a drum. An old woman who just then stepped up to sell
something explained to me that "an angel" was being buried. This is
the designation applied to small children in Mexico, and I could see
an elaborate white bundle on a board carried aloft by a woman. My
informant told me that when a child dies the parents always give it
joyfully to heaven, set off fireworks and dance and are jolly. They
do not weep when an infant dies, as the little one would not enter
Paradise, but would have to come back and gather all the tears.

The way southward led through undulating country devoid of interest. To
judge from the clusters of ranches, so numerous as to form villages,
the land must be fertile. There were no more Indians to be seen,
only Mexicans. All along the road we observed crosses erected, where
people had been killed by robbers, or where the robbers themselves
had been shot. A man's body is generally taken to the cemetery for
burial, whether he was killed or executed, but a cross is raised on
the spot where he fell. The crosses are thus mementos of the reign
of terror that prevailed in Mexico not long ago. Most of the victims
were so-called Arabs, or travelling peddlers, sometimes Syrians or
Italians, but generally Mexicans.

The most important place I passed was the town of Santiago
de Papasquiaro, which is of some size, and situated in a rich
agricultural country. The name of the place means possibly _"paz
quiero"_ ("I want peace"), alluding to the terrible defeat of the
Indians by the Spaniards in the seventeenth century. There is reason
to believe that before 1593 this central and western part of Durango
had been traversed and peopled by whites, and that many Spaniards
had established haciendas in various parts of the valley. They held
their own successfully against the Tepehuanes until 1616, when these,
together with the Tarahumares and other tribes, rebelled against
them. All the natives rose simultaneously, killed the missionaries,
burned the churches, and drove the Spaniards away. A force of Indians
estimated at 25,000 marched against the city of Durango, carrying
fear everywhere, and threatening to exterminate the Spanish; but
the governor of the province gathered together the whites to the
number of 600, "determined to maintain in peace the province which
his Catholic Majesty had placed under his g