e scene to receive his charge. Then, and then
only, it is said the delayed letter came to light. The padre had left,
at once, for Oaxaca and his archbishop. From there he sent messages
by telegraph: "Pack up, and come to Tehuacan;" "Wait until you hear
further." A third came the morning we were there: "Pack up; meet me at
Tehuacan, ready to go to a new parish."

It was really sad to look about the new home, to which he had come with
such buoyant hopes and of which he had been so soon dispossessed. When
he arrived, the place was neglected and filthy; two whole days were
necessary to clean it. It had contained practically no furniture; he
had made it look like a place in which to live. He had improved and
beautified its surroundings. He had planted a little corn and set out
some young banana trees; he had gathered many species of cactus from the
neighboring hills and had built up a fine bed of the strange plants
in his _patio_. Passionately fond of pets, he had two magnificent
greyhounds and a pug--all brought from Guatemala--a black collie, doves,
hens and turkeys on the place. And now, he was again without a home and
his time, money, and labor were lost.

Ernst accompanied us to Tehuacan. We rented three horses and a man on
foot went with us to bring them back to the village. And for the whole
we paid the regular price of eighty-seven centavos--twenty-five each for
the animals, and twelve centavos for the man--something less than the
twenty pesos demanded the day before at Tehuacan.

CHAPTER II

WE START FOR GUATEMALA

(1896)

The evening we were at Mitla, Senor Quiero came hurrying to our room and
urged us to step out to the corridor before the house to see some
Mixes. It was our first glimpse of representatives of this little known
mountain people. Some thirty of them, men and women, loaded with fruit,
coffee, and charcoal, were on their way to the great fair and market,
at Tlacolula. They had now stopped for the night and had piled their
burdens against the wall. Wrapping themselves in their tattered and
dirty blankets, they laid themselves down on the stone floor, so close
together that they reminded me of sardines in a box. With a blazing
splinter of fat pine for torch, we made our inspection. Their broad dark
faces, wide flat noses, thick lips and projecting jaws, their coarse
clothing, their filthiness, their harsh and guttural speech, profoundly
impressed me and I resolved to penetrate into their