d dollars in gold coins
hanging to her neck chain. In these later days of little trade and
harder times, these once prized decorations have been spent, and it
is rare to see any woman wearing more than twenty to fifty dollars as
display.

[Illustration: READY FOR CHURCH; TEHUANTEPEC]

[Illustration: THE WIDE ROAD; TEHUANTEPEC TO JUCHITAN]

Resuming our journey, we struck out upon the highway which parallels
the coast. Almost immediately, the road changed from a fair country
cart-road to a road remarkable at once for its straightness, breadth and
levelness. It was, however, dreadfully hot and dusty, and was
bordered on both sides with a tiresome and monotonous growth of low,
thorn-bearing trees, with occasional clumps of palms. We ate dinner at
Juchitan, in a little eating-house conducted by a _Japanese_! A little
beyond that important indian centre, we saw a puma pace forth from the
thicket; with indescribably graceful and slow tread it crossed the dusty
road and disappeared in the thicket. In the morning we had startled
flocks of parrots, which rose with harsh cries, hovered while we passed,
and then resettled on the same trees where they had been before. In the
evening we saw pairs of macaws flying high, and as they flew over our
heads they looked like black crosses sharp against the evening sky. At
evening we reached Guvino, a dreadful town, in the population of which
there seems to be a negro strain. We stopped with the _presidente_, in
whose veins flowed Spanish, indian, and negro blood. In his one-roomed
house besides ourselves there slept the owner, his wife, two daughters,
one with a six-weeks baby, a son, and two young men--friends of the
family.

Turning north the next day, onto the Niltepec road, we wandered from our
trail, losing five leagues of space and more than three hours of time.
The country through which we passed was terribly dry; there were
no running streams. We crossed the bed of one dried river after
another--streaks of sand and pebbles. The people in the villages near
these dried river-beds dug holes a foot or two deep into this sand and
gravel and thus got water. At the place where we camped for the night,
Suspiro Ranch, a new house was being palm-thatched. All the men and boys
of the neighborhood were helping; the labor was carefully divided; some
were bringing in great bundles of the palm leaves; others pitched these
up to the thatchers, who were skilfully fitting them under and over the