constantly caught glimpses
of it, with its sinuous shores, its lovely mountain backgrounds, its
islands, and its pretty indian towns. Finally, we again left it and rose
into a magnificent mountain region, covered chiefly with pines. Passing
through Ajuno, which lies upon a steep slope, we overtook a party of
police, mounted on horses, taking a group of prisoners to Uruapan.
At Escondidas, itself a miserable village, we were impressed by the
mercantile spirit of these indians. In all these villages the houses are
constructed of heavy logs or timbers, closely and neatly joined; the
roofs are shingled with long and narrow shingles, and are abruptly
four-sloped. At every house there was something for sale--food, drink,
or _cigarros_. All these houses were built close to the edge of the
road, and in the middle of the front was a little square window, in
which the goods were shown. When no trade was solicited, these windows
were closed with solid wooden shutters. Not only, however, was every
house a store, but on the highway between towns, we passed many places
where, beneath brush shelters, women offered fruit, food, or drink for
sale. Usually several such shelters would be near together, and the
venders had gay times, chatting, laughing and singing. Such houses and
roadside-selling are common through the whole Tarascan region.

[Illustration: TARASCAN WOMEN; JANICHO]

Soon after passing Escondidas, we began a descent, which seemed
absolutely endless. Time after time we thought we had reached the
bottom, only to find that we were on a terrace from which another
drop led us still further down. On and on into this bottomless pit we
descended to Ziracuaretaro, a striking town. Banana plantings surrounded
the houses; orange-trees covered with their golden spheres reared
themselves to the unusual height of thirty feet or more; _mameys_, with
their strange nut-brown fruits, and coffee-trees, loaded to breaking,
were abundant. Amid this luxuriant mass of tropical vegetation,
houses were almost invisible until we were directly in front of them.
Notwithstanding the enormous descent we had made, it appeared to us,
when we crossed the stream and began the ascent, that we had not really
been to the bottom of the great valley. For a long distance we mounted
through a district of sugar-canes; then passed a little settlement
of rude huts spread out over a reddish space; then, by a gentle but
circuitous ascent, to a rugged trail which brou