me price we paid our first subject.

CHAPTER VI

LAKE PATZCUARO

(1897)

Mexico has few large lakes, the largest, Chapala, having an area of
only 1,685 square kilometers. Patzcuaro is much smaller, but far more
picturesque. The form is something like a fat horseshoe; fine hills rise
around it on all sides, behind which are mountain heights, with jagged
outlines; pretty islands dot its waters, and twenty-two villages or
towns of Tarascan indians are situated on its borders. The indians of
these villages rarely use the land roads in going from town to town,
commonly journeying by canoes, of a somewhat peculiar type. These are
"dug outs," made from single tree trunks, and range in size from those
intended for a single hunter to those which will carry ten or twelve
persons. At the stern they are cut almost squarely across; at the bow
they are trimmed to a slope; they are flat-bottomed and considerably
wider at the bottom than above; they are dug out in such fashion that
the walls are thin and almost vertical on the inner side. Buttressing
pieces are left at the bottom, at two or three places, extending across
the canoe and no doubt strengthening the sides; they also serve as
squatting places for the passengers. The prow narrows as well as slopes
upward, and a buttressing piece left in it serves as a foot-rest for the
steersman, who sits in the bow, instead of in the stern. He steers by
means of a long-handled paddle thrust through a loop of wood fastened
to one side of the canoe. The paddles used for propulsion have handles
three or four feet long, with round blades. The paddlers sometimes make
their stroke on but one side of the canoe, sometimes on both. When they
paddle over one side only, the stroke of the oar through the water is
oblique, maintaining a steady course.

[Illustration: SANTA FE DE LA LAGUNA]

In such canoes the Tarascans of the lake villages go from place to
place; in such a canoe, we started one morning before six o'clock, for
Santa Fe de la Laguna. Our force consisted of three persons, an old man
named Felipe, his wife, and a young man. All three had paddles, but only
two really paddled, the third one steering. The sun rose shortly after
we started, and the light effects of early morning on the water and
surrounding mountains were fine. Though we had made an early start, many
had started earlier, and in the first part of our journey we met scores
of canoes, the paddlers of which were on th