eared, and did no more
for us. While waiting for him, our attention was attracted by a curious
drumming noise. It was due to women who were beating cotton. At the
first house we visited we found three women all busily occupied. An old
woman sitting in the doorway was spinning thread; a second, somewhat
younger woman with a baby in a blanket on her back, sitting on the
ground, was weaving cloth; a third woman sat, with a great cushion of
moss in a bag of matting on the ground before her, over which was spread
a deer-skin on which was laid raw cotton, which she briskly beat with
beaters made of five or six divergent sticks fastened together at one
end. Such beating sticks are called _mapaho_; one is held in each hand,
and the beating is briskly done, alternately with one and the other; the
beating is intended to spread the raw cotton into a thin and even sheet
before it is spun into thread. Returning to the town-house, we began our
work, but were soon interrupted. The town is situated on a slope over
which the houses are scattered. From the porch of the municipal house
where we sat, we could see several huts upon the slope above. Groups of
women and children gathered on the little terraces before the houses to
look down upon us at our work. The _presidente_ and other officials had
gone to bring us subjects, when we heard an outcry upon one of these
terraces. A man cried out to the officials; struggled, apparently with
a woman, then fell. The police rushed up the path. A moment later a
surging crowd of a dozen persons were struggling together with cries and
shouts. In spite of the commands of the _segundo secretario_, we started
for the scene of the disturbance, but long before we reached the spot,
met a big _topil_ with his head cut open and blood streaming down his
face, soaking his garments. His arm was thrown around another man's
neck, whose wrist he held, dragging him thus a prisoner toward the jail.
Two others followed, holding a bad-looking little man between them. The
two had fought, and when the _topil_ tried to take them, the little man,
seizing a rock, split open his head. The two persons were thrust into
the jail and a guard set. Great effort was made to find the stone with
which the blow was dealt, in order that it might be used as evidence.
The _secretario_ told the _topil_ not to staunch nor wash the wound.
With natural curiosity, the _presidente_ and other men were clustered
around the jail, looking in at the