to early graves. Our pleasant stay
at Huauhtla came to an equally pleasant termination. Having stated the
number of animals and human carriers necessary, and the hour at which
we wished to start, we found every preparation made on awaking in the
morning, and at 6:25, after an excellent breakfast with Padre Manzano,
we sallied forth. Six human carriers bore our busts and baggage, and
four capital horses carried us rapidly over the good road. It was a
magnificent morning, but later in the day, as the sun rose, it became
hot. We arrived at three in the afternoon with our carriers close
behind. The following morning we forgave the crabbed _cochero_ at
Teotitlan sufficiently to take his stage coach for San Antonio, where
we arrived in fifty minutes, having two hours to wait before the
north-bound train took us towards Puebla.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XX

TEPEHUAS AND TOTONACS

(1900)

Leaving Puebla on the early morning train, and taking the Pachuca branch
at Ometusco, we changed cars at Tepa onto the narrow-gauge Hidalgo
road for Tulancingo, which took us by a winding course through a great
_maguey_ country. After two hours of riding, in the latter part of which
we were within sight of a pretty lakelet, we reached Tulancingo. Broad
avenues, bordered with handsome trees, connected the station with the
town, in the _plaza_ of which we shortly found ourselves. This _plaza_
consists of a large square, planted with trees, with an open space
before it, and is surrounded by various shops and the great church.
It is pretentious, but desolate. In front of the treed space, were
temporary booths erected for the carnival, in which _dulces, aguas
frescas_, and _cascarones_ were offered for sale. Hawkers on the streets
were selling _cascarones_, some of which were quite elaborate. The
simplest were egg-shells, dyed and stained in brilliant colors, and
filled with bits of cut paper; these were broken upon the heads of
persons as they passed, setting loose the bits of paper which became
entangled in the hair and scattered over the clothing. Some had, pasted
over the open ends, little conical caps of colored tissue-paper. Others
consisted of a lyre-shaped frame, with an eggshell in the center of the
open part. Some had white birds, single or in pairs, hovering over the
upper end. The carnival was on in full force, and we saw frequent bands
of maskers. They went in companies of a dozen or so, dressed like
clowns, with their cl