prisoners, when the _segundo
secretario_ ordered them from the door.

This man is a strange one. He is a Cuicatec, who married a Chinatec
wife. He is little, but important. He ever carries a queer old sword.
When he first appeared before us, he impressively said, "_No tengas
cuidado_" (Have no care.) He told us that our comfort and our orders
should be cared for, even though we were in a pueblo of mere brutes,
unreasoning beings; he should charge himself and the officials with our
needs. There were scarce three hours of daylight in the afternoon, and
night set in chilly and damp. Meantime, the _secretario_, the _segundo_,
the _presidente_ and the _topils_, all had disappeared. In vain we urged
that arrangements should be made for fuel, for beds, and for a _mozo_,
whom we had ordered should be supplied to accompany the man from Papalo
back to that town with the horses. It was now dark and late, with no
sign of attention to our wishes. Through the darkness, we picked our way
over a muddy road, slippery and soaked with water, to the _secretario's_
house, where we forcibly made known our wishes, and said that attention
must be paid to them. Before we got back to the town-house our shoes
were soaked with water and heavy with mud, while our clothing was soaked
through with moisture from the air filled with mist and drizzling rain;
and this in the midst of the dry season!

During the afternoon, we had seen a curious-looking indian, dressed in
a red flannel shirt, white drawers and a cap, but with the regular red
Chinantec neck-cloth. He was a Mixtec from San Francisco Huitzo, who is
in charge of the well-kept little coffee _finca_ which we passed upon
the road. He showed us a bottle of coffee essence of his manufacture. It
was a heavy, oily, clear liquid which I understood he had distilled from
a weaker and darker coffee extract. It was exceedingly strong, and was
supposed to be used for making coffee, a small quantity of the essence
being put into a cup with hot water and sugar. He desired us to test
this, but a look at it was quite sufficient. He was a handy fellow, and
did much to hasten the fulfillment of our orders. Under his direction,
sleeping mats were brought, and he, himself, served our supper, when
finally it was ready. We were so tired that directly after supper we
laid down upon the mats spread on the damp earthen floor. We had hoped
to start our man from Papalo back with our horses early; the officials
had prom