rom his house on foot, to ask why he had not been sent for. On
our explaining that a funeral was in progress, he was greatly outraged.
We pointed out the house in front of which the funeral procession was
now forming. He stood watching, as the line of mourners approached. The
person who had died was an aged woman named Hilaria. The body was borne
upon a stretcher, as coffins are not much used among these people. The
procession came winding up the high-road, where we stood. The band in
front was playing mournfully; next came the bearers, two of whom, at
least, were sadly drunk. The corpse was clad in the daily garments of
the woman, and the body sagged down through gaps in the stretcher; a
motley crowd of mourners, chiefly women, some with babies in their arms,
followed. One man, walking with the band in front, carried a book in his
hand and seemed to read the service, as they slowly passed along. When
the procession had come near us and was about to pass, the _padre_
stopped it; expressing his dissatisfaction at the failure to arrange for
the photograph which he had ordered, he told the bearers to take the
corpse out behind the house and leave it there. They did so, returned,
and were arranged in a group with the _padre_ in their midst, and
photographed, after which the body was picked up again, the procession
was reformed, and proceeded as if nothing had happened.

The following morning at six o'clock we were again upon the road. We
first descended into the valley, passing the miserable hut from whence
the dead woman had been borne. In all the yards we noticed peach-trees
loaded with their pink blossoms. From the deep and narrow valley, we
began to climb steadily upward. We passed along the side of a gorge,
the bed of which had all the appearance of a giant stairway. Higher and
higher we mounted, leaving San Juan Diusi on our right. Great masses of
gray clouds hung upon the summits of the highest mountain, their lower
line coming very nearly to our level. The wind beginning to blow, the
gray mass soon was whirled and spread down like a great veil around us.
We were indeed glad when we began to descend and have a little shelter
behind us, against the wind, and dry skies instead of damp clouds above
us. Making a sudden descent, we found ourselves in a cleared district,
where the only trees left on the high summits were palms, which bore
little round dates with round seeds; these were quite sweet and good.
Small ranches we