eating
elsewhere, we made our way back to our lodging-place, a typical Zapotec
hut, a single room, with dirt-floor, walls of canes or poles, and thatch
of grass. The house contained a hammock and two beds of poles, comforts
we had not known for days. I threw myself into the hammock; Ernst lay
down upon one of the beds; the man and woman, squatting, were husking
corn for our horses; a little girl was feeding a fire of pine splints,
built upon the floor, which served for light. As they worked and
we rested the man asked that question which ever seems of supreme
importance to Mexican indians, "_Como se llama Ud. senor_?" (What is
your name, sir?). "Ernst," replied our spokesman, to whom the question
was addressed. "_Y el otro_?" (And the other?), pointing to me. I
replied for myself, "_Federico_." The man seemed not to catch the word
and badly repeated it after me. "_No, no_," said the much quicker
woman, "_Federico! Federico! si, senor, nosotros tenemos un Federico,
tambien_," (Yes, sir, and we have a Frederick, also). "Ah, and where is
he?" "He will come, sir; we have four boys, Luca and Pedrito, Castolo
and Federico; Federico is the baby; the little girl, here, is between
him and Castolo; they are working in the coffee-field, but they will
soon be here." At nine o'clock the little fellows appeared. They lined
up in the order of age, placed their hands behind them, and waited to be
addressed. Castolo, then about ten years of age, most pleased me, and
I asked him, among other things, whether he could read and write. His
father answered for him, that he could not read or write; that the
opportunities were not good; but that he believed Castolo _could_ learn,
that he had a good mind. At this point the mother spoke to her husband
in Zapotec. Some argument ensued, in which at last she triumphed.
Turning to me, the man said: "She says you may have Castolo; you may
take him to your country and there he can learn to read and write and
whatever else you wish." It was not altogether easy to refuse this gift;
finally I replied that we had a long journey ahead and that Castolo
would weary on the road; that he had better wait until some later time.

It was now time for the family to dispose of itself for the night. I was
already in the hammock and Ernst had one of the pole-beds; the man, his
wife, and little Federico occupied the other bed; the little girl and
the three older boys climbed, by a notched log, up to a loft constructed