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l 



THROUGH SOUTHERN 




BEING AN ACCOUNT OF 

THE TRAVELS OF A NATURALIST 



M.A., PH.D., F.R.S. 



WITH OVER ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY FULL PAGE AND OTHER 
ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS 



LONDON : 
WITHERBY & CO. 

NEW YORK : 
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 

1908 




TO 

C. B. 



PREFACE 

THIS narrative is based upon two journeys through Southern 
Mexico during the months of June to September of the years 
1902 and 1904. Eight months most of them spent in roaming 
about, off the few tourist-tracks, through some rather wild 
and little-known districts, from the regions of snow down to 
the sweltering, tropical lowlands afforded more than hasty 
impressions of this wonderful country. 

I have tried to present to the reader the ups and downs, 
the enjoyments and 'the drawbacks, just as they happened. 
We, my wife and I, have no blood-curdling adventures to 
relate, and yet some of the incidents might have turned into 
such by a hair's breadth. 

As to personal safety, the actual conditions were tersely 
put to us only a few weeks ago : " You do not need any arms 
whilst travelling in Mexico, but when you do, you want them 
badly." 

The scientific purpose of these travels was the study of the 
distribution of animals and plants with reference to the 
prevailing environmental conditions. Some of the more 
technical results have been published in the Proceedings of 
the Royal, the Zoological, and the Linnean Societies of 
London. 

Care has been taken to mention the various creatures at the 
time and place that we observed them. The country swarms 
with life, and yet days may pass without a glimpse of anything 
worth relating, and the best finds are made when least expected. 
Full-coloured pictures of the life and scenes of a typical day's 
travel in the wilds, if we put them to the test, are liable to 
cause disappointment, since the majority of the exciting 
events (though each described without exaggeration) rarely 
happen in conjunction. 



vi. PREFACE 

The photographs of the Tlapaneca country we owe to the 
kindness of Mr. W. Niven, Mineralogist, Mexico City, who had 
taken them on another occasion. 

It is a pleasant duty to acknowledge the great assistance 
and invariable courtesy received from the A. T. & Sa. Fe 
Railroad, and from all the railways in Mexico. Above all, 
our way was smoothed by the Mexican Government, thanks to 
the initiative of General Pedro Rincon Gallardo, the Minister 
accredited to St. James's, and of Don Ignacio Mariscal, the 
Minister of Foreign Affairs. The President, General Porfirio 
Diaz, taking a personal interest in our plans, gave us letters of 
special recommendation to the Governors of various States. 
Without all this help, and many acts of friendship, we should 
have a different tale to tell. 



H. GADOW. 



In Camp, Volcan del Torullo, 
Michoacan, 

June 10th, 1908. 



CONTENTS 

i 
CHAPTER I. 

THE VALLEY OF MEXICO. 

Situation of the Capital Former Inundations from the Lakes 
The Floating Gardens of Xochimilco The Axolotl : its 
peculiar Life History ; zoological controversies and new 
explanation of its non-metamorphosis The Pyramids 
of the Sun and Moon at Teotihuacan 



CHAPTER II. 

FROM THE HIGH TABLE-LAND TO THE ATLANTIC SLOPE. 

The Scenery of the Central Plateau Agaves and Pulque The 
Edge of the Plateau ; rapid change into the Tropics- 
Orizaba Mexican Fruits : Bananas, Pineapples, Aguacate, 
Zapote 21 

CHAPTER III. 

CAMPING ON CITLALTEPETL. 

The Scenery near Orizaba Vegetation at the Level of the 
Cloud-belt First Camp at 8,600 feet elevation Visitors 
The Forest and its Fauna Armadilloes Lungless Newts- 
Second Camp at 12,500 feet, above the Cloud-belt : different 
aspect of Fauna and Flora The upper Tree-line An 
Ascent to the Rim of the Crater 41 



CHAPTER IV. 

IN THE HEART OF THE TROPICS. 

The Hill-forests from Cordoba to the Rio Tonto Enormous 
Numbers of spawning Tree-frogs Cordoba A typical 
Hacienda Native Boys as Collectors of Reptiles Two 



vin. CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Boas The Ferryman Lizard A Shooting Fray A Visit 
to the Mazateca Tribe The Rio Tonto Butterflies 
Coral Snakes and " warning " Colours Leaf-cutting Ants 
A bad Accident Lagoon Life 73 

CHAPTER V. 

FEATURES OF TROPICAL FORESTS. 

The conditions necessary for Tropical Forests General Im- 
pression and leading Features The fierce Struggle for 
Existence The effect of Environment upon Animals and 
Plants Adaptations to Arboreal Life The prevailing 
Colours and Patterns Cases of convergent Development 102 

CHAPTER VI. 

SAVANNAHS AND SWAMPS FROM TETELA TO THE ISTHMUS. 

Mateo Trujillo and his Home Jaguars Birds Nearly killed 
in our Car Vegetation and Animals of the Lagoon of 
Aguafria It is not advisable to assist a wounded Man 
Railway Oddities The Town of San Juan Evangelista 
Laziness Dermophis mexicanus 114 

CHAPTER VII 

THE ISTHMUS OF TEHUANTEPEC. 

By Rail across the Isthmus Tehuantepec The Women and 

their Dress Life at an Inn The Prefect 141 

CHAPTER VIII. 

A VISIT TO THE HUAVI TRIBE. 

Travelling by Ox-cart San Mateo del Mar The Huavi 
Education The Lagoons Tortoises and Iguanas First 
sight of the Pacific Characteristics of the People and their 
Houses The return Journey An ancient Hieroglyphic 
Map of Huilo tepee A Turtle Dinner 158 



CONTENTS ix. 

PAGE 

CHAPTER IX. 

SALINA CRUZ AND JIGGERS. 

Salina Cruz and the Harbour Works The Jigger, or Sand-flea 

Bird and Reptile life at the Coast 175 

CHAPTER X. 

A RIDE FROM TEHUANTEPEC TO OAXACA (FROM TEHUANTEPEC 

TO SAN CARLOS). 

The Ruins of Quiengola A new Drink Plentiful Bird-life 
Termites Tequesixtlan and the Chontal Tribe Collecting 
Rattlesnakes and the Evolution of the Rattle The 
Four-eyed Fish Weaver-birds' Nests Hummingbirds 
An eventful Day San Bartolo and its jovial Schoolmaster 
The unfathomable Indian Mind San Carlos Yau tepee 187 

CHAPTER XI. 

FROM SAN CARLOS YATJTEPEC TO THE SOUTHERN PLATEAU. 

A District smitten with Small-pox Dismal Camp The Cactus 
Family Totolapan Idolatry and Native Beliefs 
Interesting Pedlars Character of the Edge of the Plateau 224 

CHAPTER XII. 

ZAPOTECS AND MISTECS. 

The National Fete Day at Tlacolula The Plume Dance 
President Diaz : an appreciation The Temple Palaces 
of Mitla The Ruins of Monte Alban Many Tribes and 
Languages The Capital of Oaxaca Progressive Natives 
A State Dinner Misteca Poetry The Mountain of San 
Felipe 246 

CHAPTER XIII. 

IN THE STATE OF MORELOS. 

The Sierra de Ajusco Cuernavaca, Pottery and Moths 
Ancient Carved Lava Blocks The Pyramid of Tepoztlan 
The Hacienda de Chiconcuac The Pyramid of 
Xochicalco 272 



x. CONTENTS 

PAGE 

CHAPTER XIV. 

THE CAVES OF C AC AHUIMILPA . 

Scorpions as a Cure for Hydrophobia The " Animal Plant " 

The gigantic Caves of Cacahuimilpa, and their Fauna 285 

CHAPTER XV. 

THE ANCIENT CIVILISATION IN MEXICO AND ITS ORIGIN. 

The Problem The Toltec Question The Aztecs and other 
Nahoa not the Builders of the Ancient Monuments The 
Civilisation of the Aztecs' Empire not of Aztec Origin 
The famous Almanac or Tonalamatl The Chronological 
and Calendric System The Time-bills on the Central- 
American Monuments An Attempt to solve the Question 
of the Zero of their Reckoning The Aztec Hieroglyphs 
Successive Migrations of different Nations in Mexico 
The Native Languages Whence came these People ? 293- 

CHAPTER XVI. 

IGUALA AND THE BIO BALSAS. 

A beautiful Defile Inn and Market of Iguala The Railhead 
The Balsas River Tree-frogs The Chirotes Lizard 
Gold Disagreeable Experiences 321 

CHAPTER XVII. 

IGUALA TO CHILPANCINGO. 

The Rurales Wholesale Executions Our New Servant 
Scenery between Iguala and the Balsas at Mescala Mules, 
Asses, and Horses The Musk Duck at Home Bush 
Fowls Parrakeets Crossing the River and Camping at 
Mescala A bad Night Vegetation The Canon del 
Zopilote Chilpancingo, the Capital of Guerrero Market 
Scenes The Governor, Manuel Guillen : an appreciation 337 



CONTENTS xi. 

PAGE 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE MOUNTAINS OF OMILTEME. 

An Excursion into the Heart of the Southern Sierra Madre 
Character of the Fauna and Flora Macaws, Jaguars, 
Stags, and Peccaries The Blue-tailed Skink 366 

CHAPTER XIX. 

CHILPANCINGO TO AYUTLA. 

Preparations for the Journey Wet Camps The Rurales on 
the alert How Brigands are treated The beautiful Pass 
of Los Cajones Rapid Descent into the Hot Country and 
a Narrow Escape Tierra Colorada Crossing the 
Papagayo River Camp amidst wild Mountain Scenery 
Semi-Alpine Vegetation on the low Coast Range A 
Prehistoric Carved Stone Slab 382 

CHAPTER XX. 

AYUTLA, AND THENCE TO THE COAST. 

The Mayor, Schoolmaster, and other Misteca of Ayutla Guests 
of the Municipality Masked Dances A Funeral Scrim- 
mage between Police and Robbers How such a Wild 
State is Governed The Land Question Destruction of 
Forests Ignominious Reception at Copala The 
" Tarima " Zambos Character of the low Coastlands 408 

CHAPTER XXI. 

CAMPING ON THE PACIFIC SHORE. 

The Purple Snail Heavy Nocturnal Thunderstorms Cocoa- 
nuts and Short Commons Crocodiles and Birds of the 
Lagoon The Forest Vampires 432 

CHAPTER XXII. 

THE RETURN JOURNEY BY SAN LUIS ALLENDE. 

Swamps and Inundated Forests The People of San Luis 
Allende A Funeral Our Landlord's Family Trading in 



xn. CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Animals A Glimpse of the Land of the Tlapaneca Im- 
passable Trail A Heavenly Camp The Village of 
Miahuichan A Vine-bridge Wooden Masks Religions, 
Dancing Dress and Rain-makers Rank Weeds Camping 
Troubles The " Mai del Pinto " Native Doctors A 
Plea for Native Dispensaries Prevalent Diseases 
Camp on the Pass of Los Cajones in a Thunderstorm 
Settling of Accounts at Chilpancingo Motmots 446 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

AN ASCENT OF POPOCATEPETL. 

Features of Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl Altitudinal Dis- 
tribution of Plants A Night spent at 13,000 feet elevation 
The Ascent to the Crater and the Descent Perilous Ride 
back to Amecameca 487 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

THE NEVADO AND VOLCAN DE COLIMA. 

The Mexican Volcanoes The recent Eruptions The Town 
of Zapotlan Camping on the Nevado Altitudinal 
Changes of the Fauna and Flora The " Escorpion " A 
Newt and its Distribution Woodpeckers The Lake of 
Zapotlan Goodbye, Perfecto 500 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Frontispiece Tlapaneca. 

Sketch-map of Southern Mexico . . . . . . . . to face 1 

Sketch-map of the Valley of Mexico . . . . . . . . 2 

The " Chinampas," or Floating Gardens, of Lake Xochimilco . . 6 

Axolotl and Amblystoma . . . . . . . . . . 10 

Terra-cotta Masks from Teotihuacan and Monte Alban. . 18 

Black Earthenware Vase from Teotihuacan . . . . 19 

Hieroglyph Xochimilco . . . . . . . . . . 19 

Modern Pottery I. 20 

Profile from Mexico City to Vera Cruz . . . . . . 22 

Sand, Sun, and Children 23 

A Vendor of Pulque Jugs . . . . . . . . . . 26 

Old Mission Church near Orizaba . . . . . . . . 31 

Hieroglyph Orizaba . . . . . . . . . . 40 

Citlaltepetl from near Orizaba . . . . . . . . 42 

Yuccas (Liriodendron) near La Perla . . . . . . 43 

The Camp near Xometla . . . . . . . . . . 45 

A House at Xometla . . . . . . . . . . 48 

Armadillo trotting. Its imprint. The Hieroglyph . . 52 

Evening Callers . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 

Breaking Camp . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 

Our Second Camp at 12,500 feet 60 

South-east view of the " Volcan " . . . . . . . . 61 

Citlaltepetl at the Tree-line, 13,600 feet , . . 64 

Citlaltepetl at 12,500 feet 66 

The Guides near the top of Citlaltepetl, 18,200 feet . . . . 71 

Sketch-map of Route from Cordoba to Huile . . . . 74 

Church of Cordoba 79 

The Herpetologists of Motzorongo . . . . . . 81 

View from Motzorongo ; Citlaltepetl in the distance . . 84 

Mazateca Woman . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 

A Mazateca House Type I. . . . . . . . . 87 

Starting from Josefines . . . . . . . . . . 89 

Embroidered " Huipiles " . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 

View from La Raya .. .. .. .. .. .. ..91 

A Mazateca House Type II. . . . . . . . . . . 100 

Tropical Forest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 

Mateo Trujillo and Family. . . . . . . . . . . . 115 

The Tetela River 120 

The first Iguana 126 



xiv. ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Juanita . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 

San Juan Evangelista . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 

Machetes and Knives . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 

Painted Gourds and Baskets from Tehuantepec . . . . . . 151 

Modern Pottery II. 153 

Hieroglyph Tehuantepec . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 

The Isthmus and Bay of Tehuantepec . . . . . . . . 159 

Travelling by Ox-cart . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 

Market Place of San Mateo del Mar . . . . . . . . 161 

The Zapotec Schoolmaster and the Presidente Municipal . . 164 
Stockaded Entrance . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 

President and his Family, San Mateo . . . . . . . . 171 

The Alcalde and his Family, San Mateo . . . . . . . . 172 

Hieroglyph Huilo tepee . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 

The Pacific Coast West of Salina Cruz . . . . . . . . 184 

Sketch-map of Route from Tehuantepec to Oaxaca . . . . 188 

Our Protector 190 

The " Crested Beauty " (Calocitta formosa) . . . . . . 191 

Bell Tower, Tequesixtlan . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 

The Use of a Vibrating Tail 198 

Evolution of the Rattle 199 

Anableps dowei, the Four-eyed Fish . . . . . . . . 204 

View from the Curato, Tequesixtlan . . . . . . . . 206 

Nests of Mexican Oriole . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 

Tongue of a Long-billed Humming-bird . . . . . . . . 210 

Ancient and Modern Idols and Ancient Pottery. . . . . . 215 

Small-pox Deserted House . . . . . . . . . . 225 

Organ Cactus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229 

Vegetation in the Southern Sierra . . . . . . . . 231 

Idol in the shape of a Flower Vase . . . . . . . . . . 235 

Typical House of the Zapoteca Serrano . . . . . . . . 238 

The Starving Family 240 

Pedlars 241 

Zapoteca parading for the Plume Dance . . . . . . . . 248 

Zapoteca Plume Dancer . . . . . . . . . . . . 249 

" Musica de la Danza de Pluma " . . . . . . . . . . 251 

Mixe Tramps 260 

Zapoteca Cage Seller . . . . . . . . . . . . 262 

Abraham Castellanos . . . . . . . . . . . . 266 

Hieroglyph Mitla . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271 

Cuernavaca . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274 

Cuernavaca . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275 

Beauty and the Beast . . . . . . . . . . . . 276 

Two Female Idols from Tepoztlan . . . . . . . . 277 

Terra-cotta Image of a Spanish Soldier ... . . . . . . 277 



ILLUSTRATIONS xv. 

I'AGE 

The Xochicalco Pyramid . . . . . . . . . . . . 281 

The Xochicalco Pyramid 282 

Hieroglyph Cuernavaca . . . . . . . . . . . . 284 

" El Animal Planta " 287 

Distribution of principal Nations before 1000 A.D. . . . . 296 
Distribution of principal Nations after 1300 A.D. . . . . 297 

A Modern Aztec Boy 320 

Young Lady and Maid Shopping at Iguala . . . . . . 323 

Ferry across the Cocula River . . . . . . . . . . 325 

Our House at Balsas (south entrance) . . . . . . . . 326 

Our House at Balsas . . . . . . . . . . . . 327 

A Fisherman at Balsas . . . . . . . . . . . . 329 

Chirotes canaliculatus . . . . . . . . . . . . 330 

Balsas 332 

Market at Balsas 335 

Rurales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338 

Ramon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343 

Leaving Camp at Vistola . . . . . . . . . . . . 345 

Typical Village Scenery . . . . . . . . . . . . 347 

Boys filling Gourds with Water . . . . . . . . . . 352 

Zamba of Mesquititlan . . . . . . . . . . . . 357 

Rain-water Pipes for the Palace . . . . . . . . . . 360 

Fruit Market at Chilpancingo 362 

Hieroglyph Mizquitlan . . . . . . . . . . ... 365 

Pines, Palms, and Oak . . . . . . . . . . . . 368 

The Chalet and our Escort 370 

The Hunter and his Family Omilteme . . . . . . . . 371 

Young Mexican Deer . . . . . . . . . . . . 373 

Antlers of South Mexican Deer . . . . . . . . . . 375 

The Postman 378 

Under the Amate Tree 386 

Looking South from Los Cajones . . . . . . . . . . 392 

Pearl Embroidery South Guerrero . . . . . . . . 395 

Natives of Tierra Colorada . . . . . . . . . . . . 398 

A Tortillera with her Implements . . . . . . . . . . 399 

Rio Papagayo, near Omitlan . . . . . . . . . . 401 

The Church of Pochote 403 

Sierra Madre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405 

Slab of Stone near Texonapan . . . . . . . . . . 406 

Hieroglyph Mazatlan . . . . . . . . . . . . 407 

A Deputy Mayor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411 

In Prison 412 

The Tiger Dancers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414 

The Tiger Dancers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415 

The Dance of the Masked Gachupinos . . . . . . . . 417 






xvi. ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

The Dance of the Masked Gachupinos . . . . . . . . 418 

Rio Nexpa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419 

The Guide 424 

Native and Zambo Boys at Cocoyule . . . . . . . . 427 

Women of Cocoyule . . . . . . . . . . . . 428 

Boys of Cocoyule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430 

Hieroglyph Ayutla . . . . . . . . . . . . 431 

View from " Pacific Camp " 433 

The Lagoon 437 

Dentition of the Vampire (Desmodus rufus) . . . . . . 443 

Inundated Forest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447 

Crossing the River Chilcahuite . . . . . . . . . . 448 

Market at San Luis Allende . . . . . . . . . . 450 

Embroidered " Huipiles " 452 

Claudio Garcia and Family . . . . . . . . . . 454 

Tlapaneca Village . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455 

Heavenly Camp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458 

River near Coacoyulichan . . . . . . . . . . . . 460 

Vine Bridge near Coacoyulichan . . . . . . . . . . 461 

Leather Dancing Dress, Wooden Masks, etc. . . . . . . 463 

Tlapaneca and Zambo Children . . . . . . . . . . 467 

Mixe with Amulet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475 

Looking South from Los Cajones Ridge . . . . . . . . 476 

Hieroglyph Zumpango . . . . . . . . . . . . 479 

Venta Vieja 480 

Tail Feathers of Motmots 482 

Camp near Mescala . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484 

A hot Ride 485 

Tortillas 486 

Reality and Fancy : The two extinct Volcanoes, Iztaccihuatl 

and Popocatepetl, as seen from Mexico City . . . . 488 
Iztaccihuatl and Popocatepetl, as seen from Cuernavaca . . 489 
Popocatepetl from Las Tlamacas . . . . . . . . . . 492 

The Lava-Sand Fields .493 

Western Third of the Crater . . . . 495 

Iztaccihuatl, as seen from Popocatepetl . . . . . . . . 496 

On the Top 498 

Colima in Eruption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501 

Zopilotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 504 

Hieroglyph Zapotlan . . . . . . . . . . . . 506 

Vegetation at 9,500 feet (Nevado) 508 

The Nevado seen from 11,000 feet level . . . . . . . . 510 

The Hunters of the " Escorpion " 512 

Four-in-hand Ox-cart .. .. .. .. .. ..517 

The last of the Nevado 518 



it 

1 CHAPTER I. 



THE VALLEY OF MEXICO. 

Situation of the Capital Former Inundations from the Lakes The Floating 

Gardens of Xochimilco The Axolotl : its peculiar Life History ; zoological 

controversies and new explanation of its non-metamorphosis -The Pyramids 

of the Sun and Moon at Teotihuacan. 

The broad plain called " El Valle de Mexico," in which the 
capital lies, is the bed of an old lake, surrounded by hills of late 
volcanic formation. Here and there arises out of the valley, 
which measures some twenty miles or more across, a solitary 
knoll like that of Chapultepec (the " Grasshopper Hill "), the 
reputed summer retreat of Montezuma. The beautiful palace 
erected on its top by Spanish viceroys is now the official 
residence of the President and the seat of the National Military 
Academy. Most of the valley is absolutely flat, with swampy 
marshes and meadows intersected by innumerable ditches, 
except where, on slightly rising ground, the volcanic rock, 
often in the form of lava, appears on the surface. Dozens of 
rivulets, and even streams, drain into this valley, which has 
no natural outlet ; especially numerous, and for the most part 
permanent, are the streams which come from the well- wooded 
heights of the Sierra de Ajusco and the Montes de las Cruzes. 
to the south and west of the valley. We must not forget that 
we are here on a highland plateau, the city lying at an altitude 
of 7,400 feet above the level of the sea, whilst the Sierra de 
Ajusco rises to more than 10,000 feet. 

Some four miles to the east of the capital lies the large lake 
of Texcoco, and more than double this distance towards the 
south-east are the lakes of Xochimilco and Chalco. These 



2 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

three lakes and several others to the north on higher ground- 
are the last remnants of the original large lake. How long 
ago that was, it is impossible to tell, history dating back 
scarcely four hundred years in Mexico, but even at the time of 




THE VALLEY OF MEXICO. 

the Conquest at least, Lake Texcoco was much larger than 
it is now. Its water is brackish, and it was already even then 
quite undrinkable, when it extended to and even surrounded 
the city. It is known that the Aztecs had constructed a cause- 
way by which they not only communicated with the dry land, 
but also shut off the brackish from the fresh water which came 



FORMER INUNDATIONS 3 

down from the hills to the west. Cortez attacked the old 
Tenoehtitlan by water, in brigantines, and the whole town was 
intersected by canals. In fact, it must have been a kind of 
Venice on a smaller scale : in less poetical language, a lake- 
dwelling settlement. 

Its present condition is widely different. The whole of 
Tenoehtitlan this was the name of the famous Aztec capital 
with its Teocallis and numerous other temples and 
monuments, was completely destroyed, being levelled to the 
ground, or rather thrown into the canals, and thus forming 
the foundations upon which, by degrees, an entirely new city, 
the present Mexico, has arisen. 

It was an act of vainglorious folly, almost amounting to 
insanity, for the Spaniards to rebuild the town destined for 
their capital upon a spot so liable to inundations, that even the 
Aztecs had made attempts to mend matters. Each of the 
six lakes is fed by streams which, during heavy rains, are con- 
verted into torrents, so that the northern lakes at least are 
sure to overflow and discharge their waters into the Texcoco 
Lake, which lies, together with the city, at the bottom of the 
whole valley. If it is true, as has been asserted, that the 
Spaniards, in their usual ruthless way, stripped the then 
existing forests from the slopes of the hills, the danger of 
sudden inundations was thereby vastly increased. 

Disastrous floods repeatedly submerged the new capital, 
sometimes for years, since there was no natural outlet from 
the valley, and the loss by evaporation during the dry season 
was more than balanced by the next wet season's downpour. 
Then for about 150 years hundreds of thousands of natives 
were forced to toil in carrying out the plans of one Martinez, 
a Dutch engineer, originally named Maartens, who had been 
attracted to Mexico by fabulous sums from the classical land 
of canals and dykes. This is the origin of the famous " Tajo," 
or cutting, of Nochistongo, a gigantic ditch, now mostly dry, 
which is sure to attract the traveller's attention as he rushes 
past it in the train coming from the north. It intercepted 
at least the waters of the north-western streams, and of the 
Zumpango Lake as well. Henceforth the capital was secure 

B 2 



4 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

against submersion, but another danger, permanent and much 
more subtle, remained, viz., the unhealthiness of the ground 
itself, sodden as it was with the filth of half a thousand years. 
The contents of the usual mediaeval sewers were collected 
by the canal of San Lazaro, an ominous and, as it proved, 
appropriate name. Theoretically, it discharged into the 
Texcoco Lake more than three miles off ; but it always was, 
and its remains still are, a pestilential ditch, and whenever the 
water in the lake rose a few feet, the whole of the sewage system 
was reversed, and the people died at a rate which, but for the 
great altitude 'of the town, would have been terrific. 

All this has been changed. In the year 1900 the President, 
General Porfirio Diaz, inaugurated the tunnel of the gigantic 
works, which now furnish a reasonable sewage system, the 
sewage being taken up by a new canal 43 miles long, so 
constructed that it carries off the overflow of the Texcoco 
and the northern lakes, together with the intercepted spate- 
water of the streams. Near Zumpango, due north of the 
capital, this canal turns into a tunnel more than six miles in 
length, which at one spot descends through the hills at a depth 
of more than 300 feet below the surface, to discharge its 
contents near the little village of Tequixquiac into a small 
tributary of the Rio Panuco, which falls into the Gulf of Mexico 
at Tampico. 

A great city of about 400,000 inhabitants, built up on sands 
and clays, and raised but a few feet above swamps sodden 
with decaying matter, cannot easily become a very healthy 
place. The water supply is ample, but the water itself is 
vile, and is pumped into high but exposed iron cisterns, 
coming out warm and often turbid. The climate is, up to a 
certain point, delightful, but there is no such thing as a warm 
night known in Mexico City ; the air gets very chilly with the 
setting sun, and the rarefied atmosphere does not suit every 
constitution. 

The nearest shores of Lake Texcoco are now several miles 
away to the east of the town. Where these shores are it is 
impossible to say exactly. The present mean level of the lake 
is only about six feet below the lowest part of the town. The 



THE LAKES 5 

lake has, during the last few centuries, been silting up fast. 
It is shallow, and nowhere bordered by higher ground, so that 
a rise of but a few feet suffices for the lake to spread over many 
square miles of the neighbourhood, which, during the dry season, 
is partly covered with a white saline crust, interspersed with 
scanty grass, on which cattle and horses eke out a precarious 
existence. The lake is not quite dead ; it contains several 
kinds of tiny fish, only one of them of any commercial value. 
According to Dr. S. E. Meek,* who has studied the freshwater 
fishes of the country, in the whole of the Mexico valley only 
ten kinds of fish occur, and five kinds of these are peculiar to 
this valley, while the others occur also in the basin of the Rio 
Lerma, which flows through Lake Chapala and then as the 
Rio Grande, or Santiago, through Jalisco into the Pacific 
Ocean. This distribution of the fish fauna alone is sufficient 
evidence that originally the valley of Mexico formed part of 
the Lerma system, from which it has been shut off by the 
subsequent elevation of the present hills. Moreover, that 
this event has not taken place very recently is indicated by 
the fact that about five of the Mexico valley fish are peculiar 
to this valley ; in other words, some of the original stock had 
time and opportunity to change into these species. 

While Lake Texcoco is a dreary waste of water, only en- 
livened in the autumn by numerous waterfowl, Lakes Chalco 
and Xochimilco present a very different appearance. They 
are situated, perhaps, ten feet higher than the Texcoco Lake, 
and from the intervening five or six miles of land arise two 
picturesque hills. Both lakes contain fresh water, and they are 
surrounded by fertile meadows. The Chalco Lake was rich in 
fish, and also contained many tortoises (Cinosternum hirtipes), 
which are brought daily to the market in the capital. Un- 
fortunately, this lake has been cut in two by a railway which 
passes right across it, and it has moreover been nearly drained 
off for agricultural purposes. This " improvement " put the 
fishing population into a state of indignant excitement, since 
they had originally been given to understand that their ancient 

* S. E. Meek, " The Freshwater Fishes of Mexico North of the Isthmus of 
Tehuantepec." Field Columbian Museum, Chicago, 1904. 



6 



THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 



rights should not be interfered with. They knew perfectly 
well that none of themselves, since they had been fishermen 
from time immemorial, and breeders of cattle for the last 
three hundred years, would take to ploughing the newly 
reclaimed land, and that the benefits of the change would after 
all be reaped by strangers. Of what good would be their fishing 
rights when there was no longer any lake, or only a much 




THE " CHEST AMPAS," OR FLOATING GARDENS, OF LAKE XOCHIMILCO 

restricted area, to fish in ? Such instances are not uncommon, 
and they teach the Indians to look with sullen suspicion upon 
every new enterprise. 

The two lakes are separated from each other by a narrow 
natural ridge, almost like a dyke or causeway, which was used 
by Cortez on his march from the south to Texcoco. Lake 
Xochimilco. which means in Aztec " flower-field," is an earthly 
paradise. Towards the south the mountains slope down, 



FLOATING GARDENS 7 

here and there with small detached outlying foothills in the 
midst of fertile pastures with shrubs and trees, little streams, 
rocks and ravines. The northern side has, properly speaking, 
no boundaries, since it changes gradually into a swamp with 
tall rushes, reeds and willows, and agaves growing close by on 
the drier sandy patches. The ancient Viga canal leads through 
this mixture of swamps, waste lands and meadows, and fields 
of maize, maguey and chili, or capsicum, extend right into 
the southern-most Indian part of the capital, the waterway 
being enlivened every morning with dug-outs and other 
primitive craft, laden with garden produce and punted along 
by natives, most of whom come from the village of Xochi- 
milco, and who, although living so near the capital, have 
continued to practise, sub rosa, and therefore all the more 
tenaciously, many of their ancient rites and customs. 

A visit to this marvellous place is easily accomplished. 
An electric tram starts from the centre of the capital for Tlal- 
pam, but it is better to alight at the previous station of 
Huipulco, whence an interesting (though sandy) walk of two 
hours takes one to the village. Unless there are clouds, as 
there usually are in the rainy season, the snow-clad giants, 
Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl, right in front, make a picture 
not easily equalled. The natives are accustomed to visitors, 
and are eager to take them for a boating tour along the ditches 
that run through the village, and then into the lake, which has, 
however, comparatively small stretches of open water, half its 
surface, perhaps more, being taken up by the celebrated 
" chinampas," or so-called " floating gardens," which consist of 
hundreds of large and small islands, separated by ever so many 
wide or narrow canals. The term " floating gardens " has 
been objected to by some prosaic people, because the 
islands do not float, and it cannot be proved that they ever 
did. The fact is that new islets may still be watched in the 
process of formation ; floating masses of peat, rushes, and grass, 
all tangled together, which sometimes form clumps of only a 
few square yards, are caught, combined and anchored by means 
of stakes or long willow and poplar saplings, which are driven 
into the muddy bottom, where they soon take root. The 



8 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

fertile mud is then ladled up from the bottom, and heaped up 
upon the floating mass, which in course of time is thus con- 
verted into an island proper, a patch of garden land being 
eventually produced on which are cultivated masses of flowers, 
melons, pumpkins, gourds, and other kinds of vegetables. 
The larger islands, some of them several acres in size, are 
mostly surrounded by tall poplars planted in rows along the 
edges, the trees thus forming a firm boundary. Undue shade 
is avoided by lopping off the side branches. None of these 
"chinampas" rise more than a foot or two above the water-level, 
and some of them are firm enough to support houses ; whether 
they were born islands, or are artificial, is immaterial suffice 
it to say that many of these gardens are still as unsteady as 
a bog, especially the newly- annexed portions. The property 
laws, concerning boundaries, are intricate ; for instance, 
whatever a man catches and annexes is his, but he must not on 
that account obstruct the existing waterways which, thanks 
to the continual dredging or rather ladling up of the mud, 
and dragging for water weeds, are kept in a tidy condition. 
Only the wider open stretches are covered with masses of 
nymphseas, or with the mauve-blooming pistacias, which float 
in the water, buoyed up by their peculiar swollen leaves. The 
depth of the water averages, perhaps, from five to ten feet. 

The lake is only fed by a few streams, but at various places 
clear water wells up from the bottom, especially at the famous 
" ojos de agua," or springs near the southern end, which are 
very deep, and yet so clear that the inevitable traces, in the 
shape of broken bottles, left by the " tourist fiend " can be 
seen at the bottom. The further away we go from these 
powerful springs, the muddier and darker appears the water, 
which is full of decomposing vegetable matter and teeming 
with fish, the larvae of insects, worms, and the famous axolotl. 
This name, pronounced aholotl or ajolotl or ajolotes (with the 
Spanish plural), was given by the Aztecs to a large newt, about 
eight inches in length, which was, and still is, brought daily 
to the market in the capital. This black, fish-like creature 
superficially resembles a loach, but has three pairs of delicate 
much-branched external gills, four limbs, and a long tail 



AN IMPORTANT QUESTION 9 

with a broad dorsal and ventral fin. It is eaten either fried 
in oil or simply seasoned with vinegar and chili, the red 
capsicum pepper. 

THE AXOLOTL. 

The point of interest to the zoologists who named the 
axolotl* Siren pisciforme, or Siredon Gyrinus mexicanus, 
consisted in the fact that this creature always retained its gills, 
and therefore had to be classed with other perennibranchiate 
amphibians, such as the North American Siren, the " mud-eel," 
Necturus, the " water-dog," and the Proteus of the caves of 
Adelsberg, in Istria. Cuvier, however, suspected that the 
axolotl was but the larva of some otherwise unknown 
terrestrial newt. The mystery was not cleared up until, in the 
year 1865, something happened which threw the zoological 
fraternity into great excitement, and made the axolotl, together 
with the lakes of Mexico, famous. The whole history is of such 
general biological importance, and so interesting in detail, 
that it may be thought worth re- telling, in spite of, or rather 
perhaps because of, the many, mostly garbled, accounts already 
existing. 

The first living axolotls, several dozen in number, which 
ever left Mexico, were brought to France late in the year of 
1863 by Marshal Forey on his return from the first French 
expeditionary muddle in Mexico. Five males and one female 
were then kept in the Jardin des Plantes, where they spawned 
in the same winter, and a large number of young were reared. 
From this fact it was naturally concluded that the Siredon 
having bred in its gilled condition, was not the larva of some- 
thing else, but, so to speak, the representative of a genus in 
its own rights. A year later this second generation, born in 
Paris, propagated, and the offspring developed, as before, 
into typical axolotl. But, lo and behold ! it was observed that 
several of these young ones gradually developed yellow spots 
on their hitherto dark skin, and lost the fin or crest of the tail, 

* The most reasonable of the various attempted derivations of the name 
is that from a = water ; joloa, to sprout, diverge, change ; tl, article ; the chang- 
ing water-creature, i.e., larva, tadpole. " Hue-xolotl " (hue = old) is the name 
of the male turkey. 



10 



THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 



whilst their bunches of gills shrivelled up, and they then left 
the water and lived the life of terrestrial newts. The axolotl 
had, in fact, metamorphosed themselves into a kind of lung- 
breathing land newt, which was already known as the 
Amblystoma tigrinum from many other parts of North 
America.* 

A considerable literature has grown up around the axolotl, 
all written by men who have never been in Mexico, with the 
exception of De Saussure and a Mexican zoologist, who had 





Upper figure AXOLOTL. Lower figure AMBLYSTOMA. 

recently settled the whole question in a novel and startling 
way, viz., that in the lake they are unable to transform 
themselves for want of food ! Fancy the idea that the over- 
crowding of the lake, which is teeming with food, should at 
one and the same time cause them to suffer from want of food 
and also produce these big, fat, oily axolotl ! 

Naturally, we were all the more eager to examine not only 
the lakes but also the whole neighbourhood, with especial 
reference to these strange creatures. The first discovery we 

* Good illustrations of the accompanying changes of the skull are given 
by Wiedersheim, "Zeitschrift f. wiss. Zoologie," XXXII., Pis. 11 and 12. 



THE AXOLOTL 11 

made was that there are no axolotl whatever in Lake Texcoco 
to which alone Weismann's dismal and fanciful explanation 
could apply, that the newts could not leave the lakes 
on account of their salt-encrusted shores, and therefore were 
obliged to remain in their gilled condition. 

The description of the lake of Xochimilco, given above, 
will be sufficient to show that it is a very paradise for these 
creatures, with its abundance of fresh water and food, and 
without anything in the way of natural obstacles which could 
prevent them from leaving the lake. The fishermen who 
punted us about in dug-outs knew all about the axolotl : how 
they bred early in the spring, about February ; how their eggs 
were fastened singly to the water-plants ; how soon afterwards 
the little larvae swarmed about in thousands like other tadpoles ; 
how they grew at a great rate, always remaining dark and never 
becoming piebald or marbled over with yellow, until by the 
month of June they were all grown-up, ready for the market. 
Indeed, we could not get any small specimens in June. Later 
in the summer they take to the rushes, and in the autumn 
they seem to become scarcer, at least they are then more 
difficult to get. Sometimes they are caught in nets, more 
frequently they are speared with a pronged fork. Although 
we often went to the market in the capital, there were rarely 
more than a few dozen for sale, whilst in the market in 
Xochimilco also they were only brought in a few at a time. 
None have ever been known to leave the lake or to 
metamorphose. 

The reason why this particular clan of axolotl does not 
change is now obvious. The unfailing abundance of food 
and water, the innumerable hiding-places for them in the mud, 
under the banks, and amongst the reeds, all these features are 
attractions so great that the creatures remain in their paradise, 
and consequently retain all those larval characters which are 
not directly connected with propagation. There is nothing 
whatever to prevent them from leaving this lake and 
becoming land newts, but there is also nothing to induce them 
to do so. 

So far, so good. We all agree that permanent life in the 



12 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

water has caused the retention of the gills of what would be 
the Amblystoma tigrinum. But within a few miles of this 
famous lake, in the very mountain streams which come down 
from the Sierra de Ajusco into the valley of Mexico, lives 
another kind of axolotl which regularly passes through its 
larval stage and then remains in the water as a lung-breather, 
a typical Amblystoma without gills. This is Amblystoma 
altamirani, described in 1896 by Dr. Duges,* now an aged 
French gentleman living in Guanajuato, who has contributed 
many valuable notes to the natural history of his adopted 
country. 

Accompanied by two young zoologists we went by the 
Mexican National Railway to the station of Dos Rios, 8,800 
feet above sea level, and soon fished out of the little streams 
several dozen larvae and adults. On another occasion, in the 
month of September, w r e took the Cuernavaca Railway to the 
station of Contreras, situated at an altitude of 8,090 feet, at 
the foot of the Sierra de Ajusco. The creatures lived in the 
cool, rushing streams, preferring the sheltered side of large 
boulders with little patches of sand, the larvae working their 
gills vigorously, the adult motionless and never coming to the 
surface. All were extremely shy, and very swift of movement, 
skimming along the bottom and seeking shelter at the slightest 
alarm in dark places between the boulders. The native millers 
knew them well. They called them " axolotes sordos," 
" deaf," having no ears or rather no gill openings, and described 
them as " axolotes sin aletas," without winglets, or earrings, 
meaning gills. 

When I searched for them on land, in the meadows and 
under stones or trees, the people laughed at my ignorance in 
expecting to find " fishes " on dry land. There are no fishes 
in these streams, but this, their fish, they pronounced to be 
" no good," because these " axolotes del cerro " mountain 
axolotl are not eaten like the " axolotes del lago." 

We tried to bring specimens of both kinds home alive, but 
only three survived the perils of the journey. As it is strictly 
forbidden to take anything alive into the Pullman cars, I put 

* " La Naturaleza," 2nd Series, torn. III. Mexico, 1896. 



A DISASTROUS JOURNEY 13 

various baskets, cages and vessels, into the next passenger car 
which happened to be empty, but overnight a gang of navvies 
broke in, cleared out the whole of a travelling fruit-stall, 
and rummaged my things into the bargain ; not finding any 
edibles, they drank off the spirit from some of the bottles, 
and, finding an unexpected sediment of preserved specimens in 
them, their wrath was roused, and they smashed and scattered 
the rest. This, at least, was the explanation given by the con- 
ductor. On the last journey home our livestock was, by kind 
permission, carried in the van of the Wells' Fargo Co., and all 
would have gone well if the four days' journey to Chicago had 
not been converted into a sojourn of eleven days in the train, 
owing to the most appalling series of " wash-outs " and col- 
lapsed bridges. These delays began in North Mexico, and 
reached a climax in New Mexico and Colorado, so that on 
the seventh day we found ourselves once more at El Paso ; 
then they dogged our progress all along the diverted route 
through Texas, Indian Territory, and Kansas. The effect on 
our poor reptiles, amphibians, and birds can be imagined.* 

* The following note contains a further, more technical, discussion of this 
important axolotl question : 

The classical specimens, metamorphosed into Amblystomas, also bred 
occasionally after some years. The other axolotls continued to breed and to 
produce axolotls by thousands, and with these and their descendants numerous 
aquaria on the Continent and in England were stocked, so that they could be 
bought for a few pence each in the year 1879. In the following years some- 
thing went wrong ; they were attacked by fungoid growths, whole colonies 
died out, or became sickly, and now a healthy breeding pair is comparatively 
difficult to get. It is possible that the undoubted deterioration was due to 
incessant in-and-in breeding, no fresh specimens having reached Europe again. 
This extraordinary behaviour of the axolotls caused much excitement, 
and they were subject to many careful experiments, and to comparison with 
other newts. There are many kinds of Amblystomas in North America. They 
behave like the vast majority of terrestrial newts, that is to say, they spawn in 
the water ; the gilled larvae are gradually transformed into gill-less, entirely 
lung-breathing, creatures. But numerous cases have become known in which, 
for some reason or other, this transformation is retarded, sometimes for so long 
that the creatures reach sexual maturity, but retain those larval characters 
which fit them for aquatic life. Such phenomena are described by the term 
neoteny, i.e., retention of juvenile characters. In many cases the changing 
of tadpoles, or of newt-larvae, can be delayed simply by preventing them from 
leaving the water. Amblystoma tigrinum, the species of which our axolotl 
is the larva, metamorphoses regularly, from New York to California and to 
Central Mexico,' so that the behaviour of the specimens in Lake Xochimilco 

1 Even in the lakes to the north of the capital, described bv Jose M. Velasco, "Naturaleza," 
om. IV., pp. 209-233 ; with three plates. Mexico, 1879. 



14 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

Those who do not care about axolotls or the sweet scenery 
or the floating gardens of Xochimilco, and prefer antiquity, 
should not fail to pay a visit to Teotihuacan, where amongst 
the Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon they will have plenty 
of food for reflection. The excursion can easily be made within 
a day by the Mexican Railway, the train leaving at 7 a.m. 
and returning to the capital about the same hour in the 
evening, the distance being only twenty-seven miles. From 
the train the pyramids do not look very imposing, but rather 
like big mounds of earth. Less than an hour's walk from the 
station, through the miserable village, inhabited by poor but 
friendly Indian agriculturalists, takes us to the spot. Teotihuacan, 
the Aztec name, means " where many gods are," the Pantheon, 
but the Aztecs do not seem to have had the faintest idea w r ho 
had built the place, this having, at the time of their arrival 
in the Valley of Mexico, about the year 1000 A.D., already been 

is all the more exceptional. However, these are no longer unique, since 
sexually ripe specimens, ready for breeding purposes, and yet typical axolotls, 
have been found in the States of Colorado and of Jalisco. The question 
would have been solved long ago if a competent zoologist had studied it in 
this particular spot. But De Saussure seems to have been the only naturalist 
who went there in or about 1867. He suggested that the swamps which extend 
between the water and the dry land prevented the creatures from gaining the 
latter, and therefore from transforming. This is wrong, since thick rush- 
swamps fill the northern end of the lake alone, whilst there are thousands of 
inviting places for newts to leave, if they should want to do so. Then A. 
Weismann 1 evolved another explanation. According to him, the specimens 
in the Mexican lakes were prevented from becoming perfect Amblystomas 
because they could not cross the saline, uninhabitable crust now covering, in 
his own imagination, the shores of these lakes, as they have more and more 
receded since the devastation of the forests that once surrounded them. He 
went further, and, by the use of his weU.-known dialectic power, has succeeded 
in spreading the notion that the axolotl is not only a case of reversion to an 
ancestral stage, but that the present Amblystoma, instead of being the pro- 
gressive, perfect, final form, is likewise a case of reversion. He started with 
the wrong assumption that the true perennibranchiate newts represent the 
true ancestral stage of all amphibia. The next stage would be the lung- 
breathing terrestrial newts, such as Amblystoma ; hence, if its young, owing 
to adverse circumstances, " revert " to the ancestral perennibranchiate 
stage, and if some of the axolotls lose their gills and fins, they " revert " thereby 
to the original Amblystoma. A reversion from a reversion ! Surely a round- 
about way of explaining the curious, but after all fairly simple, process of 
neoteny ! 

It seemed the obvious thing to do to search for a cause which might be 
reasonably expected to prevent these amphibians from leaving their nurseries 
Here the various writers have been strangely unsuccessful. De Saussure's 
explanation is inadmissible, and that of Weismann could apply only to Lake 

i " Zeitschrift f. wiss. Zoologie," XXV., (1875), p. 297-334. 



PYRAMIDS OF SUN AND MOON 15 

deserted by a prehistoric race, the so-called Toltecs. Crossing 
the plain there is a little river. Near its southern bank stands 
the so-called citadel, a square formed by an enormously thick 
wall of earth which carries fourteen small mounds upon it 
and encloses another in the centre, with traces of buildings. 
From the northern bank of the brook leads, in an absolutely 
straight line, in a direction north by north-east, the " road of 
the dead," nearly a mile in length and 250 feet wide. It ends 
near the Pyramid of the Moon. The Pyramid of the Sun stands 
about half-way, a little to the east of the road, and is much 
larger, being more than 200 feet high. Both consist of huge 
mounds of earth, terraced and faced with hard smoothed mortar ; 
but most of the outside has crumbled away, or rather, has in 
time become covered with dust and debris, so that the general 
appearance of these structures is now that of huge mounds 
covered with grass, herbs, and scattered shrubs. The Pyramid 

Texcoco, in which however the axolotl does not live, and the various statements 
that specimens have come from that lake are erroneous. They have been 
bought at the market of Mexico City, where the only answer one gets from the 
vendors, natives of Xochimilco, as to their origin, is " del lago," which means 
of course " their lake," but not the lake of Texcoco, which is visible from the 
city. 

Herrera's' notion that they cannot change owing to want of a proper food 
supply is not only groundless but directly opposed to recent experiments 
conducted by Dr. J. H. Powers 2 at Doane College, Nebraska. He found that 
ordinary axolotls can be hurried on towards their metamorphosis by the shock 
of starvation ; the sudden withholding of food being sufficient for this purpose. 
When once sexually ripe, they are apparently incapable of changing, but that 
their ancestral habits are still latent in them, not quite forgotten, and capable of 
being revived, has been shown by the long and careful experiments conducted 
by Marie de Chauvin 3 with the descendants of the Parisian stock. In the 
natives of Xochimilco Lake the inducements to remain in the water, their 
birth-place, have been too strong for these larvae to give way to the full 
CDmpletion of their development, or rather to change those of their characters 
which had after all been acquired in the process of adaptation to aquatic larval 
life. Nothing is stunted in the development of their bodies. On the contrary, 
they become to a certain extent overgrown, and the sexual organs, which, at 
all events in most terrestrial Urodela, are active only during the temporary 
aquatic breeding-life, undergo their normal course of development and 
function. 

One of the two specimens which I succeeded in bringing home in the late 
autumn of 1902 was an apparently full-grown typical female axolotl from 
the lake. In the winter it seemed to be in a condition ready to spawn ; an 

1 " La Naturaleza," 2nd Series, toin. III. Mexico. 

" "American Naturalist," June, 1903; and " Studies from Zoolog 1 . Lab., Nebraska Univei 
sity," 1908. 

" " Zeitscbrift f. wiss. Zoologie," XXVII. (1876), p. 52iJ ff. ; and 1891. 



16 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

of the Sun has an entrance which leads into a chamber com- 
posed of cut stones. The top of this pyramid commands a 
good view of the plain, over which are scattered numerous 
small mounds and traces of buildings, indicating the former 
presence of a considerable population in this defenceless plain. 
The most interesting feature of the whole is the " road of 
the dead," which is flanked on either side throughout its length 
by ramparts composed of lava stones, cemented together 
and covered with a whitish mortar which is very hard, smoothly 
polished, and on less exposed parts still showing ornamenta- 
tion in bright colours, chiefly red and white. In and upon 
these ramparts are whole rows of small buildings, partly of 
sun-dried bricks, faced, and lined with cut lava stones and 

English-born male was therefore associated with it, but they did not show 
any inclination to breed. The male flourished, but the unique female 
began to refuse food and to become thin, and died in March, 1905, after having 
been kept two years and five months. Unfortunately, as the irony of fate 
would have it, it was at that critical time impossible for me to watch her, and 
this was all the more annoying since a post-mortem examination revealed, 
by means of the shrunken gills and fins, that she was on the road to 
metamorphosis. 

Concerning A. altamirani all that was known was that they had been found 
in the Monies de las Cruzes at a reputed altitude of 10,000 feet. They are 
very rare in collections, perhaps because nobody has taken the slightest 
trouble to collect any since Duges. The larvae which we got in the month of 
June measured some 3 in. in length, and all had a bold piebald coloration of 
black and yellow. By the following September they averaged perhaps half 
an inch more in length, otherwise they presented no appearance of change ; 
the adults were still in the water, one of them a beautiful yellowish albino. 
The larvae were not, like the adults, restricted to the clear streams, but lived 
also in quiet water which was muddy and overgrown with watercresses and 
similar plants. In the streams of Contreras we found them up to 8,800 feet ; 
further up they did not seem to occur, and we met with the same result two 
years later. One of the specimens caught at the end of September contained 
eggs that were nearly ripe. These newts go down to at least 7,900 feet, where 
this stream leaves the mountains and runs, though still swiftly, in its stony 
bed through the pedregal or lava-field, then through evergreen meadows into 
Lake Xochimilco. I can now add with certainty that this species is aquatic 
throughout its life. Curiously enough, when becoming adult, with a length 
of 6 in., it loses the yellow and black piebald coloration, which is so character- 
istic of the perfect Amblystoma tigrinum, and develops innumerable small 
blackish specks upon an olive-grey ground. It thus comes greatly to 
resemble the coloration of the lake axolotl, which is so very dark, nearly black, 
only, however, when the chromatophores are expanded ; otherwise it is grey, 
with innumerable small black dots. 

The solitary specimens of A. altamirani which reached England alive, were 
an adult, and a larva, 4 in. in length ; the latter began to metamorphose within 
eight weeks, losing the gills and fins and closing the gill-openings, but it died 
before losing the piebald coloration. 



MYSTERIOUS MASKS. 17 

mortar. There seem to have been shrines, those which have 
been opened being found to contain stone chests with human 
bones, ornaments, and earthenware. In the case of others, 
the whole of the interior is carefully packed full with blocks 
of stone, as if the rightful owners had taken out the sacred con- 
tents and then blocked up the shrines when they had to leave 
their pantheon, or mausoleum, for ever. 

All over the ploughed fields the ground is literally strewn 
with broken bits of earthenware, and little " caritas," or masks, 
which can be picked up by the dozen. These " caritas," or 
little faces, are terra-cotta masks representing the front half 
of the human head, many of them of beautiful execution and 
showing several different types, none of which, it is customary 
to say, agree with those of any tribes known to have inhabited 
the country. The object of these little masks is a mystery. 
It is supposed by some that they were fabricated in many 
thousands, and represented the dead, of whom only the great 
were buried, while others were burnt. Not all these clay faces 
were individually made by hand ; most of them were made 
from moulds, of which specimens have been found here and 
also at Mitla. Moulds of other terra-cotta objects, for instance, 
of vase-shaped idols, are still in the possession of the natives, 
although rare, and of course jealously guarded, the natives 
selling very good replicas of such idols to those who ask. After 
all, there is not much wrong about this. The moulds, the clay, 
and the locality, are the same as the originals, and the makers 
are, at all events, genuine Indians. It is different with a regular 
syndicate in the capital itself, which makes all kinds of 
antiquities and sells them as genuine, not only to tourists, but 
also to scientific institutions. Almost every other household 
in the village of Teotihuacan has handfuls of " caritas " and 
other bits of figures for sale ; but the few frauds are so obvious, 
and so clumsily made, that they are easily picked out, and no 
offence is taken. 

Many of these " caritas " have so much expression and 
individuality that one cannot help thinking that they were 
meant for likenesses. The commonest type shows a most 
peculiarly shaped head, very broad and flat on the top, with a 
















TERRA-COTTA MASKS FROM TEOTIHUACAN. 



The top Figure, middle row, is a Whistle. The bottom Figure, middle row, 
is from Monte Alban. 



CURIOUSLY SHAPED HEADS 



19 




very high forehead, whilst the face is small, neither cheek- 
bones nor nose being prominent, though the latter is broad. In 
some the eyes are very oblique, and converge towards the 
inner angle. Some of these flat-pated 
masks show straight hair dressed accord- 
ing to a certain pattern, or are crowned 
with an elaborate head - ornament. 
This same kind of headgear occurs on 
other heads, which are normal in shape, 
and this dress is found also on the clay 
figures and carvings of Monte Alban, 
near Oaxaca. The broad flat heads alone 
are peculiar, but they are reminiscent 
to a certain extent of those of the 
present Otomi. All these masks have at 

the back of the neck a stump-like pro- BLACK EARTHENWARE 
jection, or " foot," indicating that they VASE, 

were stuck into something. Besides From Teotihuacan. 
these masks other parts of figures 

are found at Teotihuacan ; some of these are sitting 
cross-legged exactly like some of the large figures carved on 
the Pyramid of Xochicalco, or, again, on the monuments of 
Yucatan and Guatemala, a strong hint that all these pre- 
historic buildings owed their origin. to one and the same race, 
and that one which had not much in common with the Aztecs, 
to whom, thoughtlessly but persistently, these and similar 
prehistoric buildings have been ascribed. However, the 
discussion of this thorny question is reserved for another 
chapter. 




HIEROGLYPH xocHiMiLCO (" In the Flower-field "). 
Xochitl = flower, milli = cultivated ground, co = in. 



c 2 




C fl 

>& 



fe p2 
1.1 



c- 5 
S & 



CHAPTER II. 

FKOM THE HIGH TABLE-LAND TO THE ATLANTIC SLOPE. 

The Scenery of the Central Plateau Agaves and Pulque The Edge of the 

Plateau ; rapid change into the Tropics Orizaba Mexican Fruits : Bananas, 

Pineapples, Aguacate, Zapote. 

The traveller who arrives in Mexico City from the north, after 
a long railway journey, say from El Paso, has an opportunity 
of seeing some 1,200 miles of the country ; and not much less 
when his route is that by Laredo, or Eagle Pass. Yet, to begin 
with, there is not much to strike him as different between New 
Mexico and the State of Chihuahua, nor would he perceive much 
change between Texas and the adjoining Mexican States, whilst 
his general impression of the 1,000 miles ride is that of a dreary, 
sandy, arid, dusty, wind-swept table-land, without any trees, 
and with brown or yellow as the prevailing tints, the landscape 
unrelieved by rivers, bordered by low ranges of mountains 
which, in the far distance, change into dark blue sierras, the 
jagged outlines of which stand out sharply against the light 
blue sky in the thin atmosphere. 

The air, owing to the considerable elevation, gradually 
rising from 3,000 to 7,000 or even 8,000 feet, would be ex- 
hilarating if it were not for the fine, gritty dust which creeps 
into and covers everything. The fierce heat of the sun, beating 
upon and reflected by the interminable plains, raises little 
eddies of sand, like a miniature storm, in the otherwise perfectly 
still air. Some of these eddies concentrate into tiny cones 
rising only a few inches, others reach the height of a yard ; 
there is a swirling, circular, gradually increasing motion, the 
sand and dry grass rush towards it from an ever-widening 



22 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

circle, and suddenly, before we are conscious of what is going on 
or how itwas done, there isadark brown cone, composed of dust, 
sand, straw, leaves, and anything that is light and portable, 
many yards high ; then the top broadens out into an inverted 
cone, and the whole " sand-spout " waltzes away, gathering 
force and substance in its maddening career across the plain. 
Then something happens to upset the equilibrium of this weird 
thing ; maybe it stumbles over an obstacle on the ground in 
the shape of a boulder or a mound, or a gully, or the 
internal strain has become too great. At all events, the 
" spout " appears to snap asunder at its waist, the bottom cone 
collapses, and the top cone lingers on high up in the air like a 



, Citlaltepeff 
> /ezoo 



M cv i r n Apizacu 

M EXI CO __^ ._ ' ~^Boca del Man te 

7400 Teotihuacan San Andres 




PROFILE FROM MEXICO CITY TO VERA CRUZ. 

dissolving cloud. Sometimes there are many dozens of such 
fantastic apparitions racing over the plain. Result : dust, 
dust, and more dust, falling many miles away from its native 
home out of an apparently clear sky, which, however, causes 
every distant object to be bathed in beautifully delicate tints 
of violet varying to red or yellow. Very artistically, though 
in the long run very annoyingly, every blade of grass, and 
every leaf is coated with a fine film of w r hitish, sandy dust, 
or perhaps with some alkaline matter, where the local depres- 
sions are the beds of former lakes. The presence of a mob of 
cattle or a large troop of horses is indicated by a cloud above 
them. The vegetation is scanty : weird-looking Yucca trees, 
with here and there small-leaved mesquite scrub, sage bushes, 
agaves and cactuses of many varieties, and fields of Indian 



A DUSTY PLAIN 23 

corn, very desolate-looking with thin stalks and withered 
leaves. 

The whole aspect changes to a great extent, so far as colour 
is concerned, when soon after the onset of the rainy season the 
ground is covered, scantily it may be, with the new grass, or 
when extensive patches of wheat and Indian corn are grown ; 
but this applies only to a short period of the year, and in many 




SAND, SUN. AND CHILDREN. 

parts of the plateau the rainy days are few. When it does 
rain it comes down in torrents, as, for instance, at Saltillo 
one August day, when there fell 5^ inches out of an annual allow- 
ance of less than 2 feet. Most of these sudden floods run to 
waste in an inconceivably short time. Every shallow depres- 
sion is turned into a lake, which empties itself without delay 
into the dry river-beds, causing the rivers to rise suddenly, 



24 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

working havoc, though by the following day they have run 
dry again. We suffered days of delay by such cloud-bursts 
on our homeward journey. 

The habitations are wretched shanties built of adobe, or 
sun-dried brick, clustering near the stations, untidy, cheerless, 
and without so much as a tree to give shade or break the 
monotony. 

This is the general impression produced by the " mesa 
central " (central plateau) on the first morning of entering the 
country ; the same in the evening, and again during the whole 
of the next day. More than a thousand miles further on there 
is still the same sandy picture. 

Let us now take train by the Mexican Railway to Vera 
Cruz. The train leaves the capital at 7 a.m. It skirts the 
dreary waste of Lake Texcoco; an hour later we catch a glimpse 
of the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon near Teotihuacan, but 
the journey is monotonous and unrelieved even by a sight of 
the snow-clad giants, Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl, to the 
southwards, since they are hidden in the clouds. The endless 
fields are under maguey cultivation, that kind of agave which 
yields the famous pulque. As far as the eye can see, there ex- 
tend rows upon rows of these grey -green plants, and as the 
train passes by them hour after hour, these rows begin slowly 
to spin round and round in the well-known delusive fashion. 
We pass the small station of Apam a significant name, 
" aapam " in Aztec meaning " waterless land," or rather, a 
terrain which is dry on the surface with moisture beneath. 
It is this shaley limestone terrain, in the vicinity of higher hills, 
which is the best for the cultivation of the maguey plant, 
and as we happen to pass through the very centre of the pulque 
district, we may as well devote a little space to that industry. 

THE AGAVE AND PULQUE. 

There are about one hundred and twenty-five species of 
the Agave, an exclusively American genus, and one of the most 
useful of plants, which, in the barren districts, supplies well- 
nigh everything required by man. The juice makes various 
kinds of drink ; from the root a starchy food is prepared ; 



A WONDERFUL PLANT 25 

the fibres are used for ropes, coarse and finely woven cloth 
even paper, on which the Aztecs and other Mexican tribes 
wrote and painted ; its huge dried leaves are used to thatch 
the miserable adobe huts ; its woody stem and roots supply 
the only available firewood ; and the rows of the plant itself 
form an impenetrable fence of barbed leaves that nothing 
can charge against. The flowering plant is a sight not easily 
forgotten, but it takes many years before it is ready for 
blossoming : fancy says one hundred years hence the name 
" century plant " given to some of the largest kinds, e.g., the 
Agave americana. Then during a single rainy season there 
grows out of the centre a stalk, or rather something resembling 
a telegraph pole, apparently leafless, but in reality furnished 
with insignificant, aborted, paper-like leaves. This stem often 
reaches a height of twenty feet, and a foot in thickness at 
the base. The upper third carries one of the greatest in- 
florescences known. About two or three dozen branches 
form a pyramid, with candelabrum-like branches, each branch 
carrying a disc composed of hundreds of yellow or orange 
flowers, which at a distance looks like a sunflower, the 
pyramid consisting of several dozen of such sunflower 
discs. When the thousands of seeds are ripe, not only the 
huge stalk, but also the whole plant, withers away and dies, 
without an exception, and without any hope of resurrection 
by means of new shoots or suckers. The Portuguese appro- 
priately call this plant the " filha mata mai," " the daughter 
which kills her mother." Therefore, if the plant is intended 
to be saved for any purpose, e.g., for hedging, it is necessary 
to cut down the rising flower-stalk without remorse. 

Various drinks are made from the agave juice. " Mescal " 
is a distilled product from the leaves and the root, colourless, 
with a bitter taste and peculiar aroma, both of which it takes 
some time to appreciate. It contains as much as 20 per cent, 
of alcohol ; the most celebrated brand is that of Tequila, 
north of Guadalajara, where a cask of 65 litros, or about 
fourteen gallons, costs 19 pesos. The national drink on the 
plateau of the tierra fria, is the famous pulque, a fermented 
product of the maguey plant, or Agave americana, which forms 



26 



THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 



the chief industry of the States of Mexico, Tlaxcala, Puebla, 
and Hidalgo. The plants thrive best on the arid slopes of lime- 
stone hills, or on the accumulated debris of such calcareous 
formations which is apparently quite dry on the surface, but 
retaining moisture beneath. The young plants are propagated 
from suckers, never from the seeds. In their third year they 
are planted in rows in the fields, an acre holding on an average 
500 plants, so that a recently prepared field looks hopeless 
enough, resembling a quarry rather than a juice-producing 
plantation. 




A VENDOR OF PULQUE JUGS. 

Instead of a spade the labourer has a crowbar, with which 
he excavates a large hole in the ground, which is then filled 
with good soil to receive the plant, and this for many weeks 
looks more dead than alive. It takes six to eight years to 
mature, to be large enough for tapping. At the base of the 
central cluster of leaves, which are firmly closed together 
in the shape of a large pointed cone, a cavity is scooped, which 
in large plants is of the size of a man's head. In this the juice 
collects at the rate of half a gallon per week, and this process 
lasts for four or five months, when the plant is exhausted from 
the incessant loss, and injury done to its growing centre, and 



PULQUE. 27 

dies. Consequently, the average yield of a good plant may be 
put down in round figures at ten gallons. 

The " peon," or workman, has a pigskin on his back, and 
is provided with a long flask-shaped gourd, open at both ends, 
called " acojote." If the maguey is large, he climbs up into 
it, and, inserting the narrow end of the flask into the bowl, sucks 
at the other end, which is broader and furnished with a horn 
tube ; the sucked-up fluid is emptied into his bag, and this in 
turn is poured into larger bags carried by a mule. When his 
daily visit is finished, the juice is conveyed to the hacienda, 
or factory, and put into wooden tubs or vats. In the fresh 
state this juice, called " agua miel," or honey- water, is sweet, 
with a slightly bitter taste, quite transparent, with a greenish 
tinge, and is a pleasant, refreshing drink. Very soon, however, 
fermentation sets in, occasionally helped, when there is a cold 
spell, by the addition of a little " madre pulque," i.e., some 
already fermenting liquor. Within a few hours, through the 
fermentation, the sugar is converted into carbonic acid and 
alcohol, and the " agua miel," assuming a slightly milky appear- 
ance, becomes " pulque dulce," or sweet pulque, now a 
slightly intoxicating, but most pleasant, drink, although, 
owing to the gas, it causes a sharp, burning sensation to the 
lips. 

If it stopped at this stage all would be well, and pulque 
would form a drink far more famous than cider, but un- 
fortunately the fermentation proceeds so rapidly that it would 
turn the fluid into vinegar within twenty-four hours. In fact, 
" pulque dulce " cannot be exported ; it has to be drunk on 
the spot or within a radius thereof, well within a day's journey. 
The natives have set themselves to cope with this difficulty 
with unwonted energy. Now comes the disagreeable side of 
the story. To check further fermentation an equal amount of 
milk is added to the " pulque dulce," together with an in- 
fusion of rennet, just enough, or rather just not enough, to 
coagulate the milk. The amount of rennet, the state of the 
previous fermentation, the prevailing temperature, and the 
cleanliness of the operator, are highly important factors in the 
process, which requires great skill and experience. They either 



28 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

make or mar the pulque. The mixing takes place in a large vat 
or ' ; tinacal," whence the pulque is transferred into pigskins, or 
barrels, and every day special pulque trains take this nauseous 
stuff into Mexico City. Nauseous to the greatest degree 
it is, because the rennet, a well-known part of the cow's com- 
pound stomach, is partly putrid. Maybe the milk also becomes 
slightly putrefied ; at any rate it stinks horribly, worse 
than the strongest kinds of cheese. The pulque smells, the 
barrel or pigskin smells, the entire pulque-shop smells, and the 
drinkers smell sour, putrid, alcoholic. Most of the acts of 
violence committed in the capital, at Puebla, and other large 
towns, are due to the prevailing drunkenness from pulque, 
which fortunately does not keep at all in the tierra caliente, 
and is essentially a drink of the cool upland countries. It 
would be interesting to know when and by whom this milk 
pulque was invented. The old Aztecs got drunk on " pulque 
dulce," as being without cattle, horses and donkeys, they 
of course had no milk. 

The annual production of pulque amounts to something 
fabulous, and since none of it is exported except a small quantity 
in the shape of " pulque whisky," and since the drinkers are 
practically restricted to the males of the lower classes in the 
uplands, the effect may be imagined. 



We continue our journey until, by noon, Esperanza is 
reached. More than 150 miles, almost in a due easterly 
direction, have we travelled at a high level, which has varied 
but little from 7,500 to 8,000 feet, and as yet there is no change, 
no new impressions worth recording. But wait a few minutes 
longer. At Esperanza a new engine takes charge of the train ; 
it is indeed a monster, one of those double-headed locomotives 
that looks like two engines joined end to end, built especially 
for very mountainous country. Four miles further east we 
arrive at Boca del Monte, the " gape " of the mountain, still 
at an elevation of 7,924 feet, but literally upon the very verge 
of a precipice. We are now at the eastern edge of the plateau, 
and this edge happens to be one of the most sharply defined 



FROM THE PLATEAU TO THE TROPICS 29 

lines of demarcation, both with respect to the faunas and 
floras in the whole of North and South America. 

An endless panorama now stretches out before us, and we 
look towards the east across wooded mountains, hills, ravines, 
and meadows till we see in the far distance, lost in a shimmering 
haze, the lowlands of the tierra caliente the tropics. 
Within a few minutes the train descends by zigzags through 
a big ravine, amongst green patches of grass, pines and 
oaks, with tree-ferns and maidenhair, orchids and ever- 
greens in profusion ; the rivulets soon take the form of cascades, 
and the air, hitherto decidedly chilly and crisp, becomes moist 
and warm ; Indians (among them a bright-eyed girl) flock 
round the train at the station, with offerings of fruit, unknown 
flowers, and pure mountain water, instead of the nauseous 
pulque. Ten minutes later, at the next station lower down, 
we are surprised at being offered the same things by the same 
girl. It is indeed the very same bright-eyed maiden that we 
saw before, and here are squatting the very same set of Indians 
with the identical set of calabashes, baskets, and jars that we 
noticed above. They have run helter-skelter down a short 
cut whilst the train was cautiously feeling its way down by 
a long detour. We are at Maltrata, distant from Boca del 
Monte only 12| miles, but 2,670 feet lower. 

By half -past 2 p.m. we are at Orizaba, 4,000 feet below 
Esperanza, and at 4,000 feet elevation above the level of the 
sea. Orizaba is sub-tropical, of which more anon. For the 
next sixteen miles the train continues through beautiful 
mountain scenery along the Rio Blanco, which is crossed and 
recrossed by wonderful viaducts, through and over gorges, 
along precipices, through dense forest and flourishing 
plantations, till, at Cordoba, at an altitude of only 2,700 feet, 
we are unmistakably in the tropics. This fact soon becomes 
apparent from the heat, the palm-thatch of the open-built 
houses, the more thinly-clad natives, the large bouquets of 
hot-house flowers, notably fragrant gardenias and whole 
basketsful of orchids a sight to delight the heart of the most 
inveterate orchid amateur, unless it sicken him with a sense of 
hopeless envy. More than seventy different kinds of these 



30 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

flowers have been collected in this neighbourhood, the district 
round Cordoba and Orizaba being noted for the profusion and 
variety of its orchids and ferns. It is, moreover, the land 
of tree-ferns and tall palms. The same conditions prevail 
until, about another dozen miles further down, at Atoyac, the 
foot of the eastern sierra is reached, whence from an altitude 
of about 1,300 feet for the next fifty miles stretches the lowland 
belt, sloping gently down to the sea at Vera Cruz. This low- 
land belt, in about 20 north latitude, is truty unmitigated 
tropical country, or tierra caliente. It may be characterized 
as savannah, sandy soil with morasses, which are most numerous 
near the coast, grassy plains with palms, mimosas, and acacias, 
and here and there a huge ceiba, or bombax, tree, and with 
rich vegetation near the streams and swamps. In the dry season 
it is liable to be burnt up, and in the rainy season it is un- 
healthy. 

From this cursory description of the journey from Mexico 
to Vera Cruz it may be gathered that within the short distance 
of less than 200 kilometres, or 127 miles, every gradation of 
physical condition of country exists, from the sweltering, 
tropical swamps on the coast to the high and dry cool table- 
land. 

Instead of catching fever, the west-bound traveller, after 
sweltering all night from Vera Cruz upwards, is more likely 
to awake at Mexico City with the homeliest of colds. But 
there are still other climes within easy reach, and examples 
of cold and arctic conditions are suggested by the peak of 
Orizaba, which reaches far aloft into the eternal ice and snow. 
Thus it comes to pass that in this wonderful country we can 
study all the climates of the world, and that within a horizontal 
distance of less than a hundred miles, or in vertical distance 
more than three miles. There are few parts of the world where 
this is possible. 

We had fixed upon Orizaba as our base for the exploration 
of the southern slopes of the mountain. Humboldt, and 
others after him, went up from Jalapa, and by the Cofre del 
Perote, on the* north-eastern side, whilst those who only wish 
to ascend the peak are now always taken up on the western 



ORIZABA. 



31 



side, from San Andres, near Esperanza. This, undoubtedly the 
most practicable way, was that taken by Professor Heilprin* 
and by J. J. Scovell,f together with several other scientists. 

Orizaba is a pretty town of some 40,000 inhabitants, amidst 
charming surroundings, in a richly watered and fertile valley. 
It is an old place which the Chichimecs, one of the Mexican 
tribes, significantly named Ahauializ-apan, i.e., " joy in the 




OLD MISSION CHURCH, NEAR ORIZABA. 

water," " the river of delight " ; but this was too much of a 
mouthful for the Spaniards, who soon turned it into the more 
euphonious Orizaba. There are several interesting churches 
besides the fine cathedral, with a pretty well-kept plaza, and 
the market-place alone is worth many a visit. Hundreds of 

* " Proc. Am. Phil. Soc., Philadelphia" (1892), p. 4-22. 

f " American Naturalist " (1892). p. 842-844 ; " Science " (1893), p. 253-257. 



32 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

natives congregate in the market hall at their regular stalls, 
or squat in the streets with their fruit, flowers, vegetables, and 
other goods, whilst the invariable " zarape " of the men adds 
richness of colour to the scene. 

Of genuine native make, of pure, good wool, which itself 
is either black, brown, or white, or dyed with genuine native 
colours, the zarape is practically indestructible, and its colours 
are absolutely fast. Moreover, for a long time the natural 
amount of fat in the wool renders these blankets waterproof. 
It speaks well for the taste of the people that none of the 
endless varieties of the in-woven patterns and many-coloured 
designs are ever ugly or jarring. Many of them are exquisitely 
beautiful. The designs seem to be as old as the native 
civilization, always geometrical, never with any figures of 
animals or plants. But, unfortunately, the white man's 
civilization, with its many fraudulent devices, has invaded 
this industry also. There are now large factories of zarapes 
for instance, at Puebla where they use " poor, or little, wool, 
but much aniline dye." However, some of these up-to-date 
fabrications are good enough, and can hold their own, except 
for the absence of the soft effects of the indigo and the cochineal; 
but many others are only fine-weather garments, as the first 
soaking rain causes the pattern to run, and stains the wearer's 
white cotton shirt and pantaloons. The sad point is the fact 
that not only these worthless " mantas," but also the better 
qualities are turned out cheaper than it is possible for the native 
artist to produce them, and thus they, too, are now forced to 
resort to aniline dyes, whilst the culture of cochineal and of 
indigo, both aboriginal products of the country, has almost 
died out within the last few years. 

There are several hotels in the town, in the broad but partly 
unpaved Avenida de la Libertad, and these are good, bad, and 
very bad. At one of them we managed to fall out with the 
staff, owing to some unfortunate misunderstanding, and they 
then robbed us of a dress and all our newly-bought zarapes. This 
is, by the way, almost the only instance during all our travels 
when anything has been stolen from us in " thieving Mexico," 
although there was often ample opportunity. A pair of bathing 



YELLOW FEVER. 33 

trousers, probably too strange an article to be left out for 
drying in the wilds of Oaxaca, and an earthern water] ug, 
worth twopence, and a lantern were " lifted " in Iguala. This, 
however, completes the list of our losses ; and for the railways 
that carried for thousands of miles our dozens and dozens of 
packages, many of them quite unprotected, and left often 
for days at some wayside shanty of a station, no praise is 
adequate. 

The town is healthy, lying on a slope between two rivers, 
as it is supplied with ample drinking water, and is still innocent 
of artificial drainage. It is therefore much resorted to, both 
as a summer and winter station, by the Vera Cruzanos who 
wish to escape from the sweltering heat, and in the winter by 
people from Puebla and the capital who want to get warm in 
this delightful climate, which much resembles that of a hot 
English summer. 

With its altitude of 4,000 feet, it enjoyed for many years 
a reputation for immunity from yellow fever, and was there- 
fore all the more sought after as a haven of refuge by the 
wealthy costalenos. Still, during the autumn of 1902 it suffered 
from a long-continued visitation of this " yellow peril," and 
thereby hangs a little tale. Hitherto, a kind of sanitary inspec- 
tion had been made somewhere below Orizaba of the passengers 
who came up from the coast during the almost annual outbreaks 
of yellow fever, and though suspicious cases were not actually 
retained in hospital, they were practically quarantined by 
being prevented from leaving the lowland belt. Then came 
the discovery of the responsibility of the Stegomyia mosquito 
for the yellow fever, and it was pointed out triumphantly in 
the papers that these little terrors travelled, as they undoubtedly 
do, hi the carriages right up to Mexico City. What, therefore, 
it was urged, was the good of annoying and dragging out 
healthy passengers whilst taking the real culprits unmolested 
to the capital ? Consequently, the mild quarantine and 
inspection were discarded, and Orizaba got its plague, and was 
shunned by visitors, especially by tourists, since the town was 
put on the Black List of the U.S. sanitary officers. 

The neighbourhood of the town is very rich in vegetation 



34 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

and exceedingly pretty. The town gives the impression of 
great size, since one may walk for nearly an hour along any of 
the main roads without getting into the country ; there are 
always houses on either side, first forming regular towny streets, 
then they become dirty, smaller, and more scattered, and the 
patchy pavement gives way to deep ruts, black mud and filth, 
with pigs wallowing in the pools, and with fowls, children, 
turkey buzzards, and ferocious dogs contesting the right of 
way. Then follow orchards, here and there with an abject- 
looking, dirty, untidy hut near the lane. In reality, all the 
space between the radiating streets and lanes is taken up with 
orchards, gardens, and plantations of coffee and bananas, 
the juicy, aromatic fruit, " chirimoya," of the Anona tree, and 
" aguacates." Here and there rises a majestic royal palm ; 
YucQas fence in the homesteads, and the red hibiscus blossoms 
glow in the dark foliage, together with the large white trumpet- 
like flowers of Datura trees, which yield a delicious odour, 
almost too powerful to be pleasant during the night, but eagerly 
sought after by the big moths. 

SOME MEXICAN FRUITS. 

EVEN a short stay in the delightful district of Orizaba cannot 
fail to impress the visitor with the great abundance and variety 
of Mexican fruit, nearly all of which he can see here growing 
wild or under cultivation. 

Bananas flourish from the coast up to a height of 5,000 feet ; 
beyond this elevation the fruit does not ripen well. They are 
entirely propagated by suckers, which are planted at the 
beginning of the rainy season, and grow so rapidly that they 
produce their one enormous bunch of fruit in about twelve 
months ; consequently they are in season during the rainy 
period, summer and autumn. In the moist tropics ripe fruit 
is to be had all the year round. Although the plants grow as 
freely as weeds, they require a considerable amount of culti- 
vation to yield good fruit. When the tall flowering-stalk shoots 
up, several suckers also sprout up, all but one of which are 
cut off. None of these need be wasted, since they can be used 



BANANAS 35 

for starting new plants. From the remaining sucker the second, 
year's flowering plant is produced, which, as a rule, gives a 
greater bunch, and so forth for a period of several years. The 
greatest part of the labour is the keeping of the land free from 
weeds, not a small undertaking where Nature is so prolific, 
and starts a veritable tangle of undergrowth within a few 
weeks. 

The banana plant grows most luxuriantly in rich humus, 
with an ample, but well-drained, water-supply. Therefore, 
whenever possible, the plantation is irrigated. In the tropical 
parts of the country they are used for a kind of rotation of 
crops in combination with coffee and cocoa, because these 
plants for several years, while young, require shade, until they 
are strong and dense enough to provide it for themselves. 
Until this is the case, and the young trees yield a crop of 
" beans," the bananas pay for the initial outlay, and avoid 
as well the considerable expense of keeping the plantation free 
from weeds. 

There is apparently an endless number of varieties of bananas 
and " plantanos," most of them possessing different names, 
and as difficult to distinguish as are our various kinds of apples 
-and pears. If one applies the wrong name to any one kind of 
the heaps of fruit spread out in the market, the woman will 
simply shake her finger and say " No hay." Some are red, 
or reddish, others yellow ; some only reach the size of one's 
finger, while other kinds are veritable monsters, some being 
more than a foot in length and nearly three inches thick. The 
natives are most particular about eating them only when 
thoroughly ripe, because of the well-known harmful qualities 
of the unripe fruit, a fact not to be trifled with in a tropical 
climate. Unfortunately, the ripe banana or plantain does not 
keep, and the exported article conveys but a weak idea of the 
delicious sweetness and flavour of the genuine article when it 
has been allowed to ripen at its own proper time in heat and 
sunshine. When roasted, or baked in the skin, the flavour 
comes out more strongly, even in the unripe fruit, which, 
moreover, can thus be eaten with impunity. In some parts 
of the country a kind of banana-wine is made by fermentation 



36 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

of the crushed pulp mixed with water, a drink not to be recom- 
mended, except, perhaps, as an aperient. 

The banana is now a barren fruit ; it contains no seeds, or, 
at least, they have degenerated into tiny vestiges of seeds 
which are attached to the grey central string which runs 
lengthwise through the fruit ; consequently, the plant can 
only be reproduced by suckers. This is a very remarkable 
thing. The striking-looking flower, delicately mauve or pink, 
is there, with stamens and pistils complete, but the fruit is 
barren. There are still some species in the tropics of Asia which 
reproduce themselves by seeds ;* but the best edible kind, the 
Musa paradisiaca, has never been known to do this, and, what 
is more, all knowledge of its original home is lost hence its 
specific name. It has been from time immemorial propagated 
by roots only, and has consequently lost the sexual mode of 
reproduction. It is not even known whether the plant was 
indigenous in America. 

Whilst it seems at least reasonably possible that through 
long disuse of the seeds the plant has acquired this negative 
feature, it is strange that it should have acquired no power 
to protect its long and beautiful leaves from the wind. These 
are invariably torn, rent, or frayed out at the edges, and there 
is scarcely a fully developed leaf, except in very sheltered places, 
which is not thus maimed ; moreover, in many cases the 
shredding is produced by a minute insect which devours the 
green pulpy part of the leaf between the side ribs. It does not 
seem natural that such a large and important organ should not 
be built so as to be free from these incessant injuries, and, what 
is more, all the allied genera and species seem to suffer alike, 
even, judging by photographs, the gigantic " ravenala " of 
Madagascar. 

The pineapple (Ananas sativa), or " pifia," which is in- 
digenous to Central America, also grows wild in the tropical 
parts of Mexico. It had been much improved by cultivation 

* Mr. W. Skeat informs me that, in some parts of the Malay Peninsula, 
bananas are eaten which have seeds as large as, and as hard as, cherry-stones, 
almost sufficient to break one's teeth. Artificial selection and cultivation of 
the more preferable varieties has, no doubt, aided in producing softer 
and, ultimately, seedless fruits. 



THE PINEAPPLE 37 

long before the Spaniards arrived in the country. The finest 
specimens regular giants, a foot long are grown on several 
large haciendas, or factories, south of Cordoba, and these 
fetch a high price in the capital, frequently more than a peso 
each. Those of ordinary size and quality cost at the market 
of Orizaba seventeen centavos, and fifteen centavos is about 
the average price in districts where the pine is native, although 
we often got them for nine centavos in Guerrero, though these 
were sometimes small and of poor quality. Of all the tropical 
fruits, the phi a is the queen. It has the inestimable advantage 
of going, or rather agreeing, with any reasonable kind of 
beverage coffee, tea, red or white wine, and water. There 
is nothing more delicious than the selection and eating of a 
pina before breakfast ; it is most refreshing, and lasts long 
enough to make the unavoidable waiting for this meal more 
endurable. The crushed pulp mixed with water ferments 
easily, and makes a pleasant drink ; but it is rather sweet and 
too full of body, and one's enjoyment of pineapple-wine is 
rather marred by the opaque, honey-brown look of the fluid, 
especially if it should be ladled out of an insect-beset jar with 
a cocoanut shell. Most of the fibres of the bromelia-like plants 
are strong ; those of the pineapple leaves are especially strong 
and fine, and are much used for the making of anything 
which elsewhere is made of hemp, such as hammocks, ropes, 
thread, and paper bags. It takes about a year for a plant to 
produce its single ripe fruit from the time it is planted as a 
sucker. 

The ' k aguacate," the fruit of the Per sea gratissima, a tree 
belonging to the laurel family, makes a delicious salad with 
the addition of oil, vinegar, and salt ; it is a buttery, mealy, 
oval-shaped fruit, some three to four inches long, with a smooth 
skin, varying from green to black, and a large stone. Its Aztec 
name, " ahuacatl," has been, and is being, distorted beyond 
recognition, and popular etymology has here been rampant. 
It has nothing to do with " agua " ; some spell it " abogado," 
i.e., " advocate," and the Americans have turned this into 
" alligator pear." To cap these names we called them 
" watercats." The tree which bears this frequently mis- 



38 

named fruit flourishes up to an elevation of 7,000 feet, and is 
indigenous. 

" Zapote " fruit are sold in any market, but the buying of 
them is likely to lead to misunderstandings and a trial of temper, 
since the Nahoa term, " tsapotl," applies to almost any kind 
of fruit which is succulent, and has but a few large and hard 
seeds. The English language has no simple equivalent term for 
it. We have come across at least five very different kinds of 
edible fruit, all of which are locally sold as " zapote," although 
they each have a distinguishing name. 

There is, first, the " chico-zapote " (Achras sapota), the only 
representative of its genus, indigenous to tropical and semi- 
tropical America, distantly related to Erica and Arbutus, 
and forming with these and others the order Sclerophyllce. 
The tree is rather handsome, growing to a height of forty feet, 
with very hard wood, and dark and leathery evergreen leaves : 
but the flowers are insignificant, light-brown and whitish in 
colour, and with a faint scent, reminding one of old bronze or 
copper coins. Every part of the tree yields a sticky white and 
very astringent, bitter juice, from which chewing-gum is ex- 
tracted by some process of distillation. If prepared over a 
wood fire the smoke colours the gum blackish-brown, and this 
kind some of the native tribes for instance, the Mazatecas are 
very fond of chewing. This stuff is called " chicla," from the 
Nahoa " tzictli," a most appropriate word, in view of the 
incessant noise made by the chewer. It has caused the tree 
and fruit to be distinguished as " chico-zapote," which has 
therefore nothing to do with "chico," meaning small. The fruit is 
of the size of a small potato, which it much resembles in appear- 
ance, owing to its shape and light brown, slightly rough skin. 
Its flesh contains some five smooth black kernels, and has a 
most agreeably sweet and aromatic taste. It can be eaten only 
on the day of its being completely ripe, as until then the milk 
of the fruit is bitter and astringent. On the following day it 
begins to decompose, and as it does not ripen well when plucked 
green, it cannot be exported. 

A near relation of the above is the " zapote borracho," or 
" amarillo," the Lucuma salicifolia. This tree is apparently 



MAMMEE FRUIT. 39 

not cultivated. It is called the amarillo or yellow zapote on ac- 
count of the colour of its flesh ; in an occasional variety this 
is, however, dark red, of the colour of claret, and in Spanish 
such a colour is called "borracho," but this word also, or rather 
usually, means tipsy, or a drunkard, and, curiously enough, the 
kernels of this fruit certainly produce a narcotic effect. 

Other members of the same order, but of the family 
Ebenacece, belong to the genus Diospyros, e.g., D. obtusifolia, 
and they are distinguished as " zapote prieto," or " negro." 
Such " black fruit " occurs in several varieties for instance, 
near Tetela and some are said to be cultivated. Our Mateo 
did not seem to think much of them ; perhaps they were not 
in season, and we left them alone. 

Then there is the "zapote bianco" (Casimiroa edulis), a 
member of the orange tribe, though tree, flower, leaf, and fruit 
look very much like those of the Achras. The leaves stand 
mostly in fives at the end of the branches, while the flowers 
come out upon the sides of the twigs, upon a short stalk, with 
five petals and stamens, and the same number of flattened 
seeds in the agreeable fruit. This tree has a wide distribution 
in Mexico, from the " hot-lands " to the plateau. The Aztecs 
call it " iztac zapote," the white zapote, and also " cochi 
zapote," which is said to mean somniferous, practically the same 
as the " zapote borracho." 

Lastly, there is the "zapote mamey" (Mammea americana), 
the mammee fruit, of the order Guttiferce. This noble tree 
has been introduced from the West Indies, and is now frequently 
grown in the warmer parts of Mexico. It is a large tree, often 
sixty feet high, with large laurel-shaped leaves, and a sweet- 
scented white flower an inch and a half in width. The large 
globular fruit, sometimes of the size of a man's head, contains 
four large, rough-surfaced brown stones embedded in the flesh, 
which is either yellow or reddish ; the outside of the fruit is of 
a warm reddish-brown, and looks like plush or soft leather. 
After we had eaten it at a factory, or hacienda, where it was 
cultivated, we were delighted to find the same inviting-looking 
fruit growing in the forest near by, and with much trouble 
secured some specimens, with the help of a most unwilling 



40 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

native, who, no doubt, thought us mad, and as events turned 
out, quite rightly, since it was not a mamey but a good 
imitation of it the terribly astringent and poisonous 
k ' frutillo." 




HIEROGLYPH ORIZABA. 

Ahuiliz-apan = " Joyful River. 



CHAPTER III. 

CAMPING ON CITLALTEPETL. 

Scenery near Orizaba Vegetation at the Level of the Cloud-belt First Camp 
at 8,600 feet elevation Visitors The Forest and its Fauna Armadilloes 
Lungless Newts Second Camp at 12,500 feet, above the Cloud-belt : different 
aspect of Fauna and Flora The upper Tree-line An Ascent to the Rim of 

the Crater. 

The Orizabenos look upon the giant mountain as their own 
chief " sight," although it is at least twenty miles off. Its 
real name is Citlaltepetl, or Star-mountain ; its Spanish title 
is " El Volcan de Orizaba," or the " Orizaba Volcano," but 
familiarly it is spoken of as " El Volcan," or "El Pico." Only 
its gleaming white crest is visible from the town, and the people 
speak of it as if it were a nice place for a picnic, though we could 
find nobody who had ever been near it. 

However, we had the necessary recommendations from 
the Governor of the State to the Prefect of Orizaba, a courteous 
and sympathetic gentleman, and from him we obtained a letter 
to the village communities further up. Good horses, too, 
could be hired easily, and at a reasonable rate, in the town. 

One brilliant morning, therefore, we rode out, lightly 
equipped, to scout for ourselves. A very good road leads north- 
wards through Jesus Maria and La Perla, which latter lies near 
the foot of the Sierra proper ; thence there went a mountain 
track through Tuzantla and Xometla, but as yet we had 
nowhere found anything like a suitable camping-ground, 
until we came to a perfectly ideal spot, at 8,600 feet 
elevation, sufficiently high up and far enough (about a 
dozen miles) from the town, to make a start with. 



42 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

Well satisfied, we returned after nightfall to Orizaba. 
At Tuzantla we made some friends, and through Mateo's 
(our native servant's) quiet, persuasive ways, half a 
dozen mules and donkeys were bespoken, to come down and 
fetch our baggage on the following day. Great was our 
astonishment when they actually did appear, accompanied by 




CITLALTEPETL FROM NEAR ORIZABA. 

several bare-footed, roughly-clad " montanezes," or wild men 
of the mountains, as the shifty townspeople called them in 
reality, simple-minded fellows who had come down because they 
trusted us. 

Where the Rio Blanco rushes through a deep limestone 
gorge, the vegetation is of bewildering beauty. Large " alamos " 
(a kind of Platanus), with magnolias, crotons, and many kinds 
of oaks, are the prevalent trees, and wherever the big branch 
of a plane tree or an oak stretches out horizontally over the 



LUXURIANT VEGETATION 



43 



stream in a shaded place, it supports a growth that would sur- 
pass the most luxuriant and tastefully-arranged hothouse 
fernery. The whole branch is thickly covered with moss ; 
in the middle arises the scroll-like shoot of some bromelia, 
surrounded by a profusion of ferns, selaginellas, and orchids, 
festooned with lichens and lichen-like tillandsias. These 




YUCCAS (Liriode.ndron) NEAR LA PERLA. 



clusters are regular hot-beds of life, the decaying parts forming 
an ever- accumulating mass of humus, the refuge or hunting- 
ground of many kinds of little creatures. And all this beauty 
is reflected in a pool, whence arise the broad leaves of collocasias 
and other water-plants. 

The gentle slopes towards the north are like pretty park 
landscape, with good pasture and clusters of shrubs or trees of 
mimosas and acacias, crotons, myrtles, yuccas, plane trees, and 



44 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

bamboos. Here, too, is the upper limit of coffee and cotton. 
Near La Perla we saw the first tree-ferns, although on the 
moist eastern side they occur down to about 2,500 feet. La Perla. 
significantly called " the Pearl," because of its fine situation, 
agreeable climate, and great fertility, lies at the foot of the 
Sierra. Thence begins the ascent. Tree-ferns, together with 
bracken, are plentiful. A group on the spur of a hill at 6,300 
feet forms the lowest outpost of the pine (Pinus montezumce), 
while 300 feet higher, at Tuzantla, they begin to be plentiful, 
though the prevalent forest trees are still several kinds of 
oak. Next the maize-fields become scarce, the meadows 
greener, tree-ferns and datura trees disappear, and here, 
coinciding roughly with the level of the central plateau, a great 
change now comes over the flora, which, with few traces of sub- 
tropical plants, is that of a temperate, moist, and fertile 
mountain climate. 

To a great extent this luxuriant growth coincides with the 
lower level of the usual cloud-belt. The prevalent winds 
come from the north-east, laden with moisture from the gulf ; 
they cross the lowland, discharging tropical torrents upon it in 
the rainy season, but as they near the edge of the plateau they 
are arrested, and, although they do not discharge so much 
water in the form of torrents, the more frequently prolonged 
rains are much more effective. The enormous mass of the 
mountain exaggerates these conditions, and on most days of 
the year there is a belt of clouds on its north-eastern or southern 
sides, whilst the west is dry, and in the winter, during the dry 
season, the " nortes," or north winds, which suddenly rage 
over the gulf, veil the uplands of the State of Vera Cruz for 
many continuous days in a drizzling rain. Since these con- 
ditions are important for any real understanding of the climate 
of Southern Mexico, let us put it thus : The hot air, saturated 
with moisture from the sea, travels inland (either as a north or 
east wind across Vera Cruz, or as a south-east wind across 
Guerrero), and then rises, causing the cool air from the mountain 
fringe of the plateau to rush underneath, and thus form the 
clouds which send down the torrential rains upon the low-lying 
coastlands. The rain begins near the coast and exhausts 



A CLOUD-BELT 



45 



itself whilst travelling inland, and long before dawn the tempest 
is over. As a rule, the whole of the forenoon is fine, 
except, perhaps, when, during the first onset of the rainy season, 
it happens to rain for several days and nights without inter- 
ruption. The water rises at once from the warm soil during 
the morning in the form of vapour, the process being helped 





THE CAMP NEAR XOMETLA. 

by the heat of the sun, and the moisture travels further inland 
until it reaches the cooler regions of the mountains, when these 
districts, too, get their thunderstorm. This may happen at 
any hour between noon and late in the evening, according to 
the situation of the district. In normal seasons these storms, 
always accompanied by a magnificent display of thunder, are 
so regular that in many localities invitations to afternoon or 
evening parties are issued with the reminder " after the 
storm." It would, however, be erroneous to assume that they 



46 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

are of daily occurrence ; on an average it rains during the wet 
season every other day from one to three hours in most 
districts. It is true that the wet season begins at the coast, 
where it lasts longest, and then gradually proceeds to the 
plateau, but there are many exceptions. Moreover, the greatest 
number of rainy days in a month need not at all coincide with 
the greatest amount of rainfall. 

The ascent towards Xometla was rendered difficult by the 
rain. The prevalent soil, except on the limestone, was a kind 
of red ferruginous clay which extends almost down to Cordoba. 
The incessant rains, and the hauling over the track of planks 
and boards and other pieces of timber, had turned the track 
where the steep slopes occurred into veritable glissades, and it 
was late in the afternoon before the whole party assembled, 
drenched and muddy, at the camping ground. The place was 
ideal a beautiful glade ; to the north-west loomed the glorious 
peak, though, unfortunately, it did rain during most of the 
nine days that we spent there. 

The first few mornings were fine, and rain did not begin 
to fall till about noon, when it rained for an hour or two ; this 
was followed by a few minutes of sunshine, but for the rest of 
the afternoon and evening it came down in torrents. During 
the nights heavy, continuous thunder was heard from below 
in the tierra caliente ; in the daytime the thunder was above us, 
and it rained, except when all was wrapped in a thick mist or 
drizzle. This wetness, at an altitude of 8,600 feet, with a de- 
cidedly cool temperature was trying, and it was little consolation 
to be told by the natives that the wettest months here were 
July and August, when it rained every day, sometimes for a 
few hours, sometimes " todito el dia," i.e., the whole little day 
long ; but that they hoped for a respite during " la canicula " 
the dog-days. 

Poor Mateo, saturated as he was with malarial germs, 
and having come up only a week ago from his home in the 
hot-lands, at once broke down with a severe attack of fever, 
brought on by the unwonted cold, and for a day and two nights 
he was the cause of much anxiety to us, until he was brought 
round again. To see his sallow appearance, the shaking and 



SONS OF THE MOUNTAIN. 47 

the childlike helplessness, was an awe-inspiring sight and irre- 
sistible attraction for the hill-natives, who had heard of, but 
had never seen, a case of fever of this kind. Indeed, these 
hardy mountain-dwellers had not much sympathy with disease. 
" Here are no illnesses of any kind," said one, " but we know 
that the people down below are always ill. Here people die 
in their time " (which is certainly not long, to judge from the 
fact that we never saw a really old man or woman), " unless 
they meet with any accident." 

Most of the few natives in the neighbourhood paid us a call 
to satisfy their curiosity, and they were of two types. The 
majority were rather short, broad-faced, and with prominent 
cheek-bones, short chin, and somewhat flat nose, the men with- 
out any trace of beard ; the others, who were herdsmen, were 
taller, with sharp well-formed noses, good features, and a 
scanty growth of hair on the chin and upper lip. Such a fine 
fellow, for instance, was our friend, Francisco, of Tuzantla, 
and Hieronimo Alarcon, a wild-looking but most intelligent 
herdsman whom we named John-the-Baptist. He, together 
with his younger brother Ezekiel, knew the haunts and habits 
of every kind of creature in the neighbourhood, and was natur- 
ally soon induced to accept the post of chief collector, and almost 
daily brought something new. Some of the other men were 
also not averse to roam about in search of animals, or to give 
their quaint versions of the habits and properties of men, 
beasts, and plants ; they minded neither wet nor fatigue, and 
willingly went and returned in an astonishingly short time 
the twelve miles to and from Orizaba to fetch provisions. 
This they did for scanty remuneration, half a peso here being 
much more than a full day's pay ; but to attend to the camp 
for a few hours daily and regularly, to cut wood, and make up 
a good blazing fire, above all, to sit still with nothing to do 
but to guard the camp during our absence at tasks like these 
the free sons of the mountain drew the line. Not one of them 
could stand this occupation for more than two or three days, 
and when any one of them had once got his ample pay he was 
certain not to show himself again, as he was then in the awkward 
position of having money without a chance of spending it. 



48 



THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 



The camp stood about half-an-hour's walk beyond 
Xometla, which being only a " cuadrilla " i.e., not a village, 
but only a few scattered hamlets was ruled by a sub-regidor ; 
the regidor, or presidente municipal, lived at La Perla. The 
few scattered habitations, which make up Xometla, are mere 
shanties, constructed roughly of boards, thatched with the 
bark of the " oyamel," or Abies religiosa. The floor is made 




A HOUSE AT XOMETLA. 



of stamped-down clay, with a fireplace on the ground, sur- 
rounded by implements for grinding maize to wit, a three- 
legged, sloping " metlatl," or grinding-stone, made like the 
"metlapil," or grinder of lava-stone, and the thin, brittle, flat dish 
upon which the tortillas are roasted, with smaller, but otherwise 
similar, implements for grinding chili, some vessels of earthen- 
ware and cow-horns. Shelves are fitted up to hold the other 
household goods and the clothes, and the bedroom is 



DESTRUCTION OF FORESTS 49 

partitioned off with zarapes. It was all very clean and orderly. 
The good natural drainage, the opening in the pine-forest 
8,000 feet up, the absence of cattle-yards, and of any intoxi- 
cants were not conducive to slovenliness and misery. The 
people were poor but contented. No grain was grown, but 
there were small fields of Indian corn and patches of potatoes, 
which latter were said to grow well. A kind of wood-sorrel 
is also cultivated, the fleshy root and lower part of the stem, 
which grows to more than a foot in height, being boiled in milk 
and eaten. 

The staple industry is the burning of charcoal and the 
sawing of pine and deal boards, which are dragged down the 
steep slopes " travail " fashion, a couple being fastened to a 
pack-saddle. This method of wood-cutting implies a deplorable 
waste of timber, the greater part of the tree, comprising valuable 
logs of timber, being allowed to rot because they cannot be 
transported. Moreover, the people are utterly regardless of 
the consequences of a fire. Many a splendid pine tree along the 
path had had a hole burnt into it, and several times did we 
find one smouldering. The explanation was always that 
somebody had felt cold, and had re-lighted this primitive kind 
of wayside stove to warm himself. Then he had left the place 
to take care of itself. This does not matter much in the rainy 
season, and in mixed forest, but higher up in the region of the 
pine-forests whole slopes have been devastated by fire, 
especially since the herdsmen there are in the habit of firing the 
dried tussocks of grass to produce new crops. This is a difficult 
question to deal with. Theoretically, to burn the grass is strictly 
forbidden ; moreover, most of the forest now belongs to a few 
rich owners, while the few village communities have grazing 
rights in it. The owners live in Orizaba. Is it likely that the 
sub-regidor of Xometla will punish the herdsmen for an illegal 
act, which is nevertheless hallowed by immemorial custom, 
and which, after all, benefits the cattle of his own community ? 
The sub-regidor was a man of pleasant manners ; it amused 
him to have such queer strangers in his neighbourhood, and 
he did not like our leaving it for another camp higher up, 
since the official letter from the Prefect had made him 



50 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

responsible for our safety, and " there are bad people higher 
up, lawless fellows, who will attempt to rob you, and this would 
lead to a row." We all had a good laugh when it came out 
that our friend John-the-Baptist was one of these " mala 
gente." 

The sub-regidor took it for granted that we were heretics. 
" I know, all you foreigners are, that seems to be the custom 
in your country ; but please tell me two things : First, what is 
the difference between our faith and yours ? Secondly, would 
it be worth our while to adopt ' el protestantismo ' if it should 
prove to be better ? " He felt that he did not get much 
satisfaction out of his occasional attendance at mass at La 
Perla, and for a while it struck him that the absence of com- 
pulsory confession might be convenient, but when the broad 
general question was explained to him, he summed up splendidly, 
" No vale la pena, el Dios el mismo " " It is not worth while, 
the God is the same." 

The vegetation near the camp was grand. The forest 
consists mainly of the long-leaved Pinus liophylla and the 
"ocote," or Pinus montezumce, which muchresembles our Scotch 
fir, mixed with or rather bordered near the open spaces with 
various deciduous and evergreen oaks, " madrono " or arbutus 
trees, and alder, or Alnus jorullensis, called here " ilite verde." 
On open patches grew dense shrubby masses of the dark green 
small-leaved Arbutus spinulosus, a shrub with a pungent smell. 
Fuchsia microphylla forms shrubs twelve feet high. Plants 
of the bromelia kind occur in many varieties. On the ground, 
near the streams, they are more like typical bromelias, with 
long, serrated sharply-cutting leaves ; others (e.g., Tillandsia 
tricolor) form clusters on the " ocote " trees, looking as if the 
green leafy top of a pineapple had been grafted into the 
branch, with a long flower-stalk which, in the tillandsia, 
bears insignificant flowers, though the spathe carries 
bracts and short modified leaves varying from red to blue 
or yellow, these giving the whole plant an orchid-like 
appearance. These big tillandsias continue up to a level 
of 9,600 feet, when they suddenly disapp'ear. Other kinds 
look like pendent lichens, or form little patches on the 



PLANTS AND ANIMALS 51 

branches, resembling tufts of short, withered grass. Orchids 
were also well represented, from the broad-leaved, white- 
flowering Catasetum, which grows in the mould-filled re- 
cesses of hollow oak-trees, to crimson red stiff -leaved kinds, 
growing high up on the pine-trees. Ferns in the forest itself 
and in the open are scanty, except bracken, but, on the mossy 
stems of rough-barked trees, such as the oak and alder, was 
polypody. In the deep, well-shaded water-courses plant-life 
was luxuriant : here were maidenhair and big ferns in masses ; 
here, too, were thick clusters of bamboos, though not in such 
bewildering profusion as in the " barrancas," or gorges, lower 
down. The influence of the tropics was still indicated by gigantic 
lianas which crept right up into the tree-tops ; one of these, 
a bignonia, appropriately nicknamed " el caballero," or " the 
rider," since, as the people explained, it is never seen on the 
ground, but is always " well mounted." Salvias, dahlias, 
begonias, geraniums, oxalis, fuchsias, tradescantias, thistles, 
irises, and Ipomoea purga with its long scarlet trumpets, would 
be the most likely components of the armful of flowers which 
may be gathered during a short ramble. 

Animal life seems almost absent ; especially striking was 
the scarcity of birds. We never heard an owl, nor did we see 
a single eagle, hawk, or falcon ; a few families of tits, a tree- 
creeper, a woodpecker, and some Cyanocitta nana, or blue jays, 
were all we noticed ; there were scarcely any butterflies, and 
there was no humming of insects ; perhaps all winged insect 
life was depressed by the rain and mist. Of mammals we saw 
more : mouse-like rodents e.g., Peromyscus we caught in 
traps ; the " tuza," a kind of " pocket " gopher (Geomys hispid us), 
had its burrow not far below the camp, and was very common 
near Tuzantla, which name literally means " plenty of gopher." 
Squirrels, such as Sciurus variegatus, mostly grey or reddish, 
were frequent ; but there was one interesting find, the occur- 
rence of armadillos, which we had not expected at this level. 
It is true the same kind, Dasypus novemcinctus, inhabits also 
the Valley of Mexico, and is found, for instance, near Contreras 
at 8,000 feet elevation, but near our camp in a decidedly 
cool, clammy forest they seemed out of place. One of their 

E 2 






52 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

burrows stood at 9000 feet, They left plenty of spoor. 
When they are poking for worms and insects they make 
little holes resembling those of badgers, or scratch up 
some soil, pushing it back between the hind limbs, the 
latter, with the tail in the middle, leaving a curious-looking 
impression. A family is said to consist of six, including 





ARMADILLO TROTTING. ITS IMPRINT. THE HIEROGLYPH. 

Ayotochtli = Tortoise Rabbit. The sound " Ayotl" (Tortoise) is indicated in 
the hieroglyph by the sign " a " = water, represented by a wave with shells. 

four young, all of which live together in one " nido," or 
nest, which, like a badger's burrow, is deeply hidden on a 
slope between rocks and the roots of trees. This same kind 
of " encubierto," or " armado " (in Aztec " ayotochtli," or 
tortoise-rabbit), thrives equally well in the tropical lowlands. 
Being nocturnal, spending most of its time in its burrow, 
and probably hibernating when times are bad, it seems 
more independent of temperature than most mammals, in 



NEWTS 53 

spite of its naked skin. In any case there are but few kinds 
of mammals, except certain carnivores, which can show such a 
great vertical range of distribution as 9,000 feet. The peccary 
is regularly exhibited at the cookshops of Orizaba, where also 
Cariacus toltecanus (a small deer with antlers more like those 
of a roebuck) is common, but owing to the presence of wood- 
cutters and charcoal-burners, they are now restricted to the 
higher regions. This scarcity of game implies the absence of 
carnivores, of which, at this altitude in Mexico, only the wolf, 
coyote, lynx, and puma were to be expected ; the latter is not 
rare near Orizaba, which, broadly speaking, marks the lower 
distribution-level of this inhabitant of temperate and cool 
climates. 

More to my purpose were the amphibia and reptiles. There 
were five kinds of Spelerpes, land-newts of slender build, mostly 
black with yellow or orange specks on the back, or dusted 
with grey. These prowl about in the dusk, and also during the 
night, in search of soft insects and small scolopenders, while 
some of them hide in the daytime under moss, or, with pre- 
dilection, under the scraps of pine-bark which are strewn over 
the ground. Others, notably S. orizabensis, lead a partly 
aboreal life, their favourite hunting and hiding-places being 
in the clusters of epiphytic plants, such as tillandsias, orchids, 
and the climbing phyllodendron. Most, if not all, of them 
are viviparous, so that they are independent of standing or 
running water ; moreover, these creatures, although they 
grow to a length of some six inches, either have no lungs, or 
but tiny vestiges of them, so that their whole respiration is 
carried on through the medium of their permanently moist skin, 
supplemented to a small extent by the throat,* which is 
occasionally worked vigorously. The tongue is also peculiar ; 
it can be shot out upon their prey like that of the chameleon, 
although not so far. 

The whole genus, which comprises about twenty species, 
is widely distributed, from Massachusetts right into north- 
western South America. At least ten species inhabit Mexico, 

* Their buccal breathing has been studied by Inez L. Whipple ; " Biological 
Bulletin," XL, No. 1, 1906. 



54 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

nine of these south of a line drawn from Guadalajara to Tuxpan. 
on the Atlantic, a few as far south as Peru ; one inhabits 
Hayti, and one (8. fuscus) lives in Sardinia and in northern Italy. 
In Mexico itself they have the greatest possible range of altitude. 
S. orizabensis I met with up to at least 12,500 feet on 
Citlaltepetl ; S. variegatus from 9,000 feet down to the steaming 
hot lowlands of the isthmus. The occurrence of several species 
in the tierra caliente was rather surprising, as the finding 
of this genus in Peru has hitherto been explained by the tacit 
assumption of a former continuous range of high mountains. 
Here it may be mentioned that a whole boxful of S. 
variegatus, which I had collected on a day's excursion in a 
tropical district south of Cordoba, lived very well at our camps 
on Citlaltepetl in spite of the cold temperature ; but all those 
which I brought from that mountain died within a few days 
when taken into the tropics. This observation corroborates 
the fact that most creatures can endure a temporary change 
into cooler surroundings, even although they may not flourish 
under it, while the reverse of such conditions prostrates and 
kills them. Amphibia are especially sensitive in this respect ; 
a frog may be frozen, and on thawing it will revive, but a few 
extra degrees of heat, as, for instance, the warmth of one's 
hand, may kill it. Physiologically, all this is as easily ex- 
plained " the self-adjusting regulation of the body's tem- 
perature " is the phrase in technical use as it is difficult to 
reconcile with what geographical distribution shows us. There 
are, in fact, many more species of animals and plants which 
have their original home, or probable centre of origin, in tem- 
perate climates, and now extend into the tropics and yet remain 
apparently unaltered, than there are hot-country species which 
have spread into cool climates. The latter process seems 
to require a much longer time to accomplish successfully. 

The local name of the Spelerpes is " tlaconete," i.e., little 
creature, from the Aztec " tlaco " -- half, or small. They in- 
clude Thorius pennatulus, a tiny newt, less than two inches 
in length and thinner than a match, with weak limbs and 
reduced digits. The lungs are also aborted ; the nostrils of 
the males are very large and open, those of the females are 



FROGS 55 

much smaller. These little things showed a predilection for 
living in a proverbially precarious position, namely, " between 
the bark and the wood " of decaying pine-trees, amongst the 
boring-dust of beetles and maggots. 

Of tailless amphibians only one kind exists, but this is 
rather plentiful, Hylodes rhodopis, a small Cystignathid, which 
leads the life of a tree-frog. It seems to be a southerner, 
which, although not extending on to the plateau itself, ascends 
the high mountains on its eastern, southern, and western 
borders. On Citlaltepetl, for instance, it occurs well up to 
10,000 feet, whilst it also inhabits the " hot-lands " in the State 
of Vera Cruz. Most of the specimens were dark brown, with 
reddish tints, and lived on or near the ground amongst the dark 
masses of rotten leaves ; others had made their home in the 
tillandsia clusters, or on the green shrubs at the edge of the 
forest ; these frogs were quite green, but when caught soon 
changed to reddish yellow, and ultimately assumed the natural 
coloration, which is also that of specimens preserved in spirit. 
None of these frogs in the forest itself, upon the ground, showed 
a trace of green. The genus Hylodes comprises the H. mar- 
tinicensis, the " coqui " of the West Indies, which has become 
famous as the first frog known to lay a few large eggs only, 
from which within a few days the young are hatched, as almost 
perfect little frogs, they having hurried through the gilled 
and tailed tadpole stage in a diagrammatically precipitate 
.fashion. Most kinds of Hylodes seem to go through such a 
" condensed " process of babyhood ; the eggs are laid in a 
foaming lather or spume wrapped between leaves. Suitable 
places upon the mountain, shady places with decaying leaves, 
were swarming with these little baby frogs, but our search for 
nests was without result, since the proper breeding season was 
already passed, and the adults kept quite mute. In any case, 
the presence of these peculiar frogs was significant, they, with 
the newts, being the sole representatives of amphibia. There 
were no other frogs or toads whatever, nor were any known 
to occur. Both toads and frogs require standing water in 
which to deposit their eggs, and there is no standing water 
anywhere near the Xometla level. The streams were quick- 



56 



THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 



running and very cold ; some were fed by melting snow, or 
became rapid torrents when it rained, and for these reasons 
they contained no fish either. 

The distribution of creatures here was somewhat puzzling, 
although the explanation may be simple enough when hit 
upon. If any information from natives can be relied on, it 
is that about the presence or absence of poisonous snakes. 
Now, near Orizaba there are plenty, rattlesnakes included. 




EVENING CALLERS. 

Here at Xometla in fact, from the foot of the mountain at La 
Perla upwards there were none whatever, but the herdsmen 
insisted upon the occurrence of " cascabeles," or rattlers, 
higher up, and they were quite right. The ordinary rattlers 
of the genus Crotalus are, as is well-known, not averse to 
northern climes, nor to high plateaus, but they shun moist 
forests, and, on the higher Mexican mountains, their place is 
taken by Crotalus triseriatus, a small, very viper-like species, 
with but a poor rattle. This little snake is found up to nearly 
13,000 feet. Thus, owing to local circumstances, it has come 



LIZARDS 57 

about that we here have a belt of country free from poisonous 
snakes, one kind not ascending, the other kind not descending 
far enough. Of harmless snakes only Tropidonotus scalar is 
was found, this being the representative of a typically northern 
genus. 

The numerous varieties of lizard found in the warmer 
parts, and even in temperate Mexico, ceased at La Perla, only 
two genera, Sceloporus and Gerrhonotus, sending up a few 
species each. The beauty of all the Sceloporus, S. 
formosus, a denizen of the median belt of these mountain 
ranges, was left behind well below Xometla, where it 
basked upon the rocks, its beauty and vividness of 
colours vying with that of the flowers ; the body, of a 
shining emerald green above, would now and then be raised 
upon its four limbs, thus rendering visible the blue-black sides 
of the belly, the broad bands of blue and black across the neck, 
and the throat gleaming with the richest and brightest orange. 
Maybe he was admired by his mate in her subdued, washed- 
out dress, if we may assume so much appreciation and 
perception of colour in these creatures. Thence, almost up to 
the snow-line, we met only with the small S. microlepidotus 
and S. ceneus. The former, truly arboreal and coloured like 
bark, ascends in the morning with the sun right into the 
tree-tops, where it hunts for insects. This little lizard has the 
greatest possible vertical range, from the hot country of southern 
Oaxaca, only a few hundred feet above the level of the sea, 
to the upper tree-line of Citlaltepetl, at about 13,500 feet. The 
other, S. ceneus, also sombre of colour, does not climb the trees 
beneath which it lives, but prefers the grassy ground, and is 
equally at home in the moist, cloud- wrapped pine-forests, and 
on the more barren, grassy larva-strewn slopes, extending 
almost up to the snow-line. Lastly, there were four kinds of 
Gerrhonotus, called " escorpiones," but known to be harmless, 
for a wonder ! Suffice it to say here that the gem of the genus, 
G. gramineus, is delicately green above and lemon-yellow below. 
It is pre-eminently arboreal, ascending the highest trees in 
search of insects, and making its lair in the hollows of oaks, 
pines, and arbutus. The other kinds are grey or brown, and 



58 



THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 



do not climb, but prefer tussocks of grass near little streams. 
They are all viviparous, live on insects and worms, and are of 
a wonderfully gentle disposition, losing their shyness a few 
hours after having been caught and handled. They keep well 
in captivity, and shed their skin, fingers, eyelids and all, in one 
continuous piece, turning the whole shirt inside out, as do blind 
worms, to which, indeed, they are related. 




BREAKING CAMP. 



No doubt there are other kinds of vertebrates at this level, 
but after a week's search it became more and more difficult 
to come across, or even to hear of, anything new. The pre- 
servation of plants in the wet atmosphere was a sore trial, 
and, above all, we had more than enough of the mist and rain. 
We therefore decided to move out of the wet by ascending 
above it. When the necessary beasts of burden and men had 
been procured, through the sub-regidores of Xometla and 



A HIGH CAMP 50 

Tuzantla, the ascent was easy enough, as there was a regular 
track made by the woodcutters, which still further up, had 
been used in former days by the " neveros," who carried snow 
to Orizaba, until the railway superseded this primitive traffic 
with the importation of American ice. Towards 10,000 feet 
of altitude the general aspect of the flora shows a marked change. 
The big tillandsia disappears, and mistletoes (Loranthus), or 
" planta quebradora," the breaker-plant, take their place. 
The oaks are left behind, and for a while the tall " oyamel " 
(Abies religiosa), " madrona " or arbutus, and the alder become 
the dominant trees ; the long-leaved pine gradually drops out, 
and the underwood is composed of " escoba " or broom, 
elder bushes, and various shrub and tree-like heaths. 
This elder, Sambucus mexicanus, is the ugliest shrub of 
the country, very brittle, with grey-green, willow-like leaves ; 
its local name is " azumiatl," mentioned already by Hernandez 
as " xometl," or " arbol del sauco " ; infusions from the 
leaves are much used, and the leaves, when put upon the head, 
are believed to cure headaches. 

The ground is covered with asfodels, the first patches of 
which, when found, were still small and without flowering- 
stalks ; a hundred feet higher on the same slope they occurred 
in masses, though not yet in bloom ; another hundred feet 
higher and they were to be seen in their full beauty, together 
with thistles, bilberries, lupins, and pentstemons. 

Here, on a ridge, presumably at 12,500 feet of elevation, 
we established our camp, under pine-trees, on a carpet of 
asfodels and tussock-grass, in full view of the peak, which now 
appeared of imposing dimensions. We called this camp 
Santa Barbara, since the place was known as La Barbara, 
" the wilderness." There was a little brook with ice-cold 
water, and we managed to build a substantial hut to serve as 
shelter for our retainers, who, however, promptly disappeared 
on the following morning, only our friend Hieronimo con- 
tinuing his visits. It was delightful up there. To our unspeak- 
able joy we heard and saw the daily thunderstorms far below 
us ; we were indeed two or three thousand feet above those 
everlasting clouds. Certainly we experienced no rain, but snow 



60 



THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 



fell occasionally. Frequently the snowy peak collected a cap 
of clouds, a short thunderstorm raged above us, and then 
the whole mountain glittered in a sheet of white, right down to 
the camp, but this snow disappeared rapidly under the sun, 
and soon all was dry again. Of course it was cool up there, 
the thermometer usually wavering between 39 F. and 46 F., 




OUR SECOND CAMP AT 12,500 FEET. 

reaching 15 C. (=59 3 F.) at noon. We experienced no incon- 
venience from the rarefied atmosphere, so long as we were not 
in motion, or during the night, but a few steps taken uphill at 
once considerably increased the pulse, whilst the felling and 
dragging about of small trees was felt severely. 

It was less lonely here than at the lower camp, since in the 
scantier wood it was easier to observe the few creatures that 
lived there. There were mice, all of new kinds, some squirrels, 



61 

and right up at the tree-line we found the shed antlers of a 
Cariacus, incontestable evidence of its existence at this extreme 
altitude. One or two blue-birds, Sialis, some Dendroecas 
and tits inspected the lichen-covered trees, and a few humming- 
birds an unexpected sight hovered around the flowers of the 
lupins, though we had not seen a " hummer " since Orizaba. 




SOUTH-EAST VIEW OF THE " VOLCAN," FROM OUR SECOND CAMP. 



A sensation we could have dispensed with was the discovery 
of rattlesnakes close to the tent ; they preyed, of course, upon 
the mice which made a good living out of the seeds and grasses; 
but the existence of these snakes so close to the upper limit of 
life, in a climate cold even in the summer, and one implying 
a long term of hibernation, was certainly surprising. Brown 
" escorpiones," Gerrhonotus antauges, basked on the grass- 
tussocks, Spelerpes orizabensis, continued nearly up to the 



62 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

tree limit, and the last to give out was the little brown Sceloporus. 
In the morning they were easily collected under the bark of 
trees, or under stones, stiff with the cold, arid it took hours of 
sunshine before they felt fit for leaving their hiding-places. 

At the camp the " ocote "-trees averaged fifty feet in height, 
all of them covered with lichens, especially with the pendent 
Usnea, and often supporting thick clumps of the yellow-brown 
mistletoe. Many of the trees were dead, or had fallen from 
stress of age and weather ; others had been destroyed by fire. 
Above 13,000 feet the " ocotes " become rapidly smaller, and 
appear yet more weather-beaten. There they stand in natural 
scattered groups, sprinkled over the southern and western 
sides of the slopes, whilst the northern and eastern aspects 
are bare ; the trees here only reach from some ten to fifteen 
feet in height, and then they cease to exist. These trees are, in 
fact, miniature " ocotes," with every sign of premature age, and 
have been stunted or dwarfed through adverse circumstances ; 
but they do not dwindle to a mere nothing, nor do they grow 
in sprawling, lying-down, or creeping attitudes like the juniper 
bushes which extend still further up, almost to 14,000 feet, 
the tree-line here corresponding to an altitude of about 13,500 
feet. It is an interesting problem. We do not know the effects 
of the various factors in the problem, as, for instance, the 
temperature, rarity and moisture of the air, the condition of 
the subsoil, and, still less, the combined effects of these. The 
difference between life and no life is, of course, absolute ; within 
the zone of life some animals and plants are sufficiently capable 
of adaptation to exhibit every grade, from a flourishing to a 
struggling or even lingering condition, and it is but a few kinds 
of plants of which the tree-line is composed. Why do they 
not dwindle to a mere nothing, say into dwarf trees of the size 
of those produced by the Japanese ? Because, up to a certain 
level, the bionomic conditions permit the life of the species, and 
a few feet higher they do not. Annual plants may, of course, 
in a favourable season, climb up higher and flourish, but 
perennials are inexorably bound to the line. No species can 
exist which enjoys but a partial life, without the chances of 
self -propagation. It is, after all, not more perplexing than the 



THE LIMIT OF LIFE 63 

fluctuation of the snow-line at any given hour, since near 
that line water must be either water or ice and snow. Upon 
some plants the unknown effects of the surrounding conditions 
are very sudden and mysterious. For instance, the Tillandsia 
tricolor disappears quite suddenly from the southern slopes 
at about 9,600 feet ; the last specimens are just as large and 
flourishing as those lower down, whilst the conifers, upon which 
they grow, continue without the slightest change. The Pinus 
liophylla and the Abies religiosa cease at their upper level as 
very big trees. Each kind has its limits, and, for unknown 
reasons, whilst climbing up the mountain, none of these trees 
have changed into new races, sub-species, or species, maybe 
because the whole district is comparatively recent territory, 
a fact which is almost certain, since the higher regions are still 
covered with the sands, ashes, and lava of the last eruptions. 
Their disintegration .has produced the red ferruginous clay 
which covers most of the slope down to Cordoba. 

At the very tree-line, on the slope of a sheltering rock, we 
found a rather fine specimen of an obsidian knife, left behind 
there by its owner, perhaps, many hundreds of years ago. From 
thence upwards cinders and pumice-stone covered barren 
stretches of the mountain, while here and there, on more stony 
ground, grew patches of lupins, and yet a few tussocks, looking 
like pillows of moss, but composed of tiny white flowers. Even 
here there was animal life : a raven croaked overhead, and 
some finches twittered among the rocks, while lizards (Scelopo- 
rus ceneus) hunted a tiny-winged grasshopper, or another, 
which was brightly coloured and wingless, and possessed of 
ridiculously small jumping powers ; lastly, there were some 
spiders. Then came the solid volcanic rocks, quite barren 
except for lichens and patches of moss, and some 600 
metres above the camp, at an altitude of about 14,400 feet, 
we reached what seemed to be permanent patches of snow. 

The summit of the volcano towered another 4,000 feet 
above us, and it was obvious that the ascent could never be 
made on these precipitous south-eastern and southern sides. 
Soon after noon the peak collected clouds, and, suddenly, 
a hailstorm made things unpleasant. Whilst winding our 



DESCENDING. 65 

way back, everything below became enshrouded in a thick fog, 
and it was nearing sunset when the repeated tooting of a horn 
gave us at last the right direction. Thoughtful Mateo, feeling 
uneasy about our long absence, had sent Hieronimo to the 
rescue. 

From the central mass of the volcano, which within historical 
times seems to have been extinct, run out several ridges, one 
nearly due east, another south-east, and a third due south- 
west, all more or less cleft and broken ; these consist of huge 
streams of lava, partly covered with pumice stone, ashes, and 
sand, which wind and water by turns have worn into intricate 
ravines. In the south-west, at about three to four miles from 
the centre, the horizon is bordered by the jagged masses of 
the Sierra Negra, which rises to a height of nearly 13,000 feet, 
and looks very imposing with its sheer, precipitous walls turned 
towards the volcano. This Sierra Negra consists of limestone, 
apparently of the same type as the hard blue stuff of the later 
cretaceous age, which passes in a broad belt close by Orizaba, 
and thence far to the south, along the confines of the States of 
Oaxaca and Vera Cruz. 

We stopped three nights at La Barbara, and on the fourth 
day descended and enjoyed a kind of repetition-lesson of the 
distribution of plants as one after another made its appear- 
ance, until their very numbers became bewildering. Tired, 
drenched, and hungry, we looked in vain for a suitable camping- 
ground, but there was only one small level patch, which, on 
closer examination, proved to be the cemetery of La Perla, 
showing that the village was nearer than we expected. We 
claimed shelter in the " curato," the house intended for the 
occasional visits of the clergy. 

The " alcalde " made a pompous speech, promised us every 
assistance, and wound up with the bombastic remark : " Here 
you may do as you like ; nobody has any power here but 
myself and God." " That's splendid, then let us have some 
food." " Hay de todo," said he ; " but as it is already late, 
I doubt whether you can procure anything now, but to-morrow, 
whatever La Perla possesses, you may command." He accepted 
a cigarette, drank our health in a cup of " specimen " spirit, 



A WORSHIPPER OF THE PEAK. 67 

wished us good-night, and promised to see us " manana." The 
foraging on the morrow was disappointing, nothing beyond 
bananas, tortillas, and " aguardiente " was to be had ; requests 
for chickens, bread, meat, and eggs, always elicited the same 
answer : " No hay," varied by " Se acabo " ("it has come to 
an end"). What little we got to eat on the evening of the 
following day we had to fetch from Orizaba. 

Our companion had in the meantime developed his worship 
of the peak into a regular cult, and the symptoms became 
so acute, when, in the midst of tropical heat and beauty, we 
again saw the peak, now fifty miles off, that the only chance 
of a cure was to tell him to go and shiver if he liked on the top. 
But since he actually accomplished the ascent, rarely under- 
taken, and still more rarely successfully carried out, the gist 
of his own account is here given : 

" From San Andres Station, reached by the up-train at 
2 p.m., a mule-tram leads to the village of Chalchicomula, 
six miles distant. The mountain, as seen from the plateau, 
was no longer a solitary giant spreading his great knees 
upon the earth and bearing up the firmament on his 
head. No, the first impression from the plateau is that of a 
hill a deformed, almost hunchbacked, and dusty-coloured 
hill rising out of a level plain, and only marked out from his 
fellows by a cap of snow. Dust lies ankle-deep in the parched 
highways, and every now and then leaps up in a tall column 
that spins its course until it is scattered by the wind, which 
sweeps over the endless fields of maize and agave. As the mules 
jog along, the view gradually clears, and one can distinguish 
first the foot-hills, thirsty-looking yellow sand, and pebbly 
pumice ; next the belt of dark green forest, and over that the 
beetling mass of porphyry, down the sides of which long, cloven 
tongues of snow seem to be straining to lick something they 
cannot quite reach. Quiet reigns in the streets of Chalchi- 
comula, where, save for the trams, wheeled vehicles are unknown; 
and the place itself, beyond its propinquity to the volcano, 
possesses no particular claim on the attention of the world. 
There is a regulation plaza, with the usual circular fountain and 
stone seats, flanked on one side by the large unfinished church, 



68 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

from the facade of which San Andreas, clad in a plaster kilt, 
faces the afternoon sun. On another side of the plaza stands 
the Hotel Siglo Veinte (the ' Twentieth Century '), in which, as 
the visitor is assured by a handbill posted in the train, are to 
be found ' Comodidad, aseo, moralidad, y orden.' More than 
comfort, cleanliness, morality, and order one could not ask for, 
so here I took a room ; besides, it was the only inn. I next 
broached the subject of the ascent. Instead of making diffi- 
culties, the landlord forthwith sent a boy for one Juan Sanchez, 
who turned out to be a man of seventy- two, but still nimble 
upon his feet. For the sum of $13, plus one peso for fodder, 
he undertook to supply a horse, a mule, his own services, 
and that of two other men, and to take me to the top of the 
volcano and back. In two days, unless a storm came on, he 
thought that the thing could be done. 

" Next morning we started at 7.30, the necessary equipment 
having been packed on to two ' burricas,'or she-asses, into which 
the promised mule had changed during the night. The peak 
was clear on this side, but its north-eastern face was banked 
with fleecy clouds. The road lies through open, rolling foot- 
hills, all cultivated and treeless as far as Barrio de San 
Francisco, a pulque-producing village. Along the side of the 
road are big white-flowering thistles, purple convolvulus, and 
Arbutus spinulotus ; while in the neighbourhood grow the 
' encino ' and the Roble oaks, the short and long-leaved 
pine, alder, and a few ' sabinos,' or junipers. At 9.15 
we entered the ' orilla del monte,' amongst a belt of pines. 
The behaviour of the tillandsias was as striking as it 
was on the Xometla side. The first was noticed at 9.30, 
two more at 9.45, four minutes later they were plentiful, 
although not growing with anything like the luxuriance 
they displayed at Xometla. Here was met the first big 
' oyamel,' which henceforth became plentiful, growing in 
groves. At 10.15 appeared masses of dark purple asfodels, the 
tillandsias gave way, and big scrubs of pentstemon and lupins, 
called ' Flor de San Juan,' six to eight feet high, attracted 
attention beneath the ' oyamel, 'which is here the predominating 
tree. At 10.35 the ascent, which so far had been gentle, became 



HIS ASCENT. 69 

steeper ; the alder disappeared, the long-leaved pine seemed 
somewhat dwarfed, and was giving way to the short-leaved 
' ocotel,' but the ' oyamel ' continued, most of the trees 
festooned with Usnea, and some were nearly overpowered 
with lichens. At 11.25 we stopped for an hour amongst 
lupins, pentstemon, small tree-heath, and ' ocotel.' The path 
now takes advantage of a depression between two converging 
ridges, and leads straight up to the toothed notch which 
separates the peak from the Sierra Negra. At 12.55 we 
were at the edge of the timber, and crossing a broad saddle 
between the two mountains, with steppe-like vegetation and 
deathly silence, although, for that matter, all the way up 
there had been very few signs of animal life. 

"At 1.45 we reached our day's destination, La Cueva, a 
roomy hole in the side of one of the rocky reefs which lead up 
to the snow. This one runs about north and south, and its 
eastern or weather face is clothed for some distance with large 
pines which, being here locally sheltered from the wind although 
not from the moisture, manage to thrive at this considerable 
level, the altitude of the cave being reputed to be 13,700 feet. 
The night before the ascent is always spent at this cave ; a 
big fire was made at the mouth, and soon after sundown a 
light rain began to fall. The night was wretched and nobody 
slept, although in preparation for an early start we tried our 
best. The altitude produced a tight feeling round the head 
and a slightly squeamish sensation in the stomach. The old 
man got up every hour to tend the fire and to look at the 
weather, but came back each time with the discouraging 
report ' Esta pegando,' literally, ' It is pegging away.' At 
last, soon after midnight, he declared that things were 
' limpiando,' ' clearing.' We warmed some food and gladly 
left the dismal cave a little before 3 a.m., the old man leading 
with a lantern. The sky was clear overhead, but it was a dark 
night, and the moon had already set. 

" There is a trail along the base of the ridge, and soon we 
found ourselves walking over the light powdery snow which 
had fallen overnight, giving the dim outlines of the ridges a 
ghostly appearance, but in front the dark mass of the peak 



70 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

loomed up unmistakably. The valley up which we were going 
gradually narrows into a pass, and at a moraine, about five miles 
from the cave, the real snow-line is reached. At 4.45, and 
perhaps at an altitude of some 15,000 feet, the horse and the 
donkey were taken back to the cave by the old man, and we 
three began the walk up, which, for about two-thirds of the way, 
consisted simply in placing one foot before the other on the 
rocks which lead in a straight line up to the summit, the only 
difficulty being the filling of the lungs. Day burst in all its 
glory, and as we gradually crept upward the plain from Cordoba 
to Puebla was clearly mapped out in all its wonderful colours. 
In the foreground was Maltrata, and above it the green steps 
of forest and open country which overhang Orizaba. West- 
ward a long stretch of filmy plain, and in the far distance, 
sparkling like many-hued jewels in the sunlight, were 
Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl. We kept on steadily until, 
at 7.45, we reached a point where the rocks stopped. The top 
was in full view, and just above our heads was ' el pulpito,' 
an overhanging mass of rock. 

" According to the younger of the two guides we should 
be on the ' pulpito ' in a quarter of an hour, but the older guide 
was less sanguine, and said that it might take us an hour to get 
to the crater itself. Actually it took us three hours, and we went 
through the misery of thinking that we might not get there 
after all. The main reason was the state of the snow, which 
was very soft after last night's fall, and we were also delayed by 
a storm which sprang up rather suddenly. Every step had to 
be sliced out with the spade by the unfortunate Juan, and so 
we ' tacked ' very slowly indeed up the steep slope. The 
' pulpito,' which had seemed within our grasp, was blotted out 
by the dense white clouds, and we plodded on and on without 
seeming to get anywhere. Juan could dig no more, and the 
other man was not such a good hand with the spade. Almost 
every moment I expected to be told that we could go no further, 
when through a thin spot in the mist appeared for a moment 
the figure of a cross which marks the summit. Between it and 
us there was a patch of wet ground which the wind had swept 
bare of snow ; from below this spot looked as if one could step 



THE SUMMIT REACHED 



71 



across it, but we had great difficulty in dragging our weary 
limbs over it. 

" The cross, which the men approached hat in hand at 
10.45, stands on the edge of the crater, but the wind blew so 
fiercely and so cold that it was impossible to stay there, nor 
could we see anything except the jaws of a jagged chasm in 
which water was roaring. We found a sheltered place and sat 
down, in the vain hope of the storm passing. We had nothing 







THE GUIDES NEAR THE TOP OF CITLALTEPETL, 18,200 FEET. 

to drink, which was a bad mistake, and for the food we had not 
much appetite in our somewhat nauseous and rather sleepy 
condition. 

" After waiting half-an-hour we started down, putting our 
feet in the same dug-out holes ; but the snow was treacherous, 
and before long I went through a soft place, wrenching my knee. 



72 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

It was nothing serious, but enough to make me cast about for 
some easier means of descent. After some palavering, Juan 
and I rigged up a toboggan in the shape of a small zarape, and 
we slid down on it together, all the way down the snow, cover- 
ing in a few minutes what had taken us hours to go up. At 
12.50 we were at the foot of the snow, and thence it took two 
hours to the cave, where we arrived about 3 p.m., hungry, but 
still rather squeamish about eating. When, an hour later, we 
left the cave the peak was brilliantly clear ! " 



CHAPTER IV. 

IN THE HEART OF THE TROPICS. 

The Hill-forests from Cordoba to the Rio Tonto Enormous Numbers of 
spawning Tree-frogs Cordoba A typical Hacienda Native Boys as 
Collectors of Reptiles Two Boas The Ferryman Lizard A shooting Fray 
A Visit to the Mazateca Tribe The Rio Tonto Butterflies Coral Snakes 
and "warning" Colours Leaf-cutting Ants A bad Accident Lagoon Life. 

Our original programme, as laid down at home, included 
a journey into the tierra caliente, the goal at which we in- 
tended to recuperate being Tehuantepec, and our plan being to 
reach the Isthmus by way of Oaxaca. We had even fixed 
the dates. In most cases, any serious change of such a plan 
of campaign leads to disappointment, to be repented at leisure, 
when it is too late. Not knowing how life in these tropics 
would suit us, we were a little afraid, especially after the many 
warnings received about the forests and sw T amps during the 
rainy season, and prudence dictated our leaving the swelter- 
ing, moist Atlantic lowlands alone, and trying the drier Pacific 
side, though in our heart of hearts we still hankered after the 
mysteries of the forbidden land. Eventually, however, we 
thought that we must have " just a peep " into those parts 
as well. On doing so, we were at once smitten with their 
luxuriant beauty, and good luck and a kind friend combined 
to produce a complete change of plan, which proved most 
successful. 

The " peep " was instructive, and came about in this way. 
Whilst waiting at Orizaba for Mateo, we happened to befriend 
a queer fellow, who professed to be a collector of natural 
history specimens, and I spent an afternoon digging and hoeing 



74 



THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 



in his " cafetal," or coffee plantation, for newts, which, according 
to him, were so common that it would require care to avoid 
injuring them with the hoe. His name was Toro (Mr. Bull), 
a most inappropriate patronymic, since he was an arrant 
coward, childishly afraid of fever and snakes. What could be 
easier than to take the morning train for Cordoba at Orizaba : 
thence, after half-an-hour, to go by another train to Presidio, 
arriving at 10 a.m. ; there to stop and have a look round, and 
to return by the up-train at 3 p.m., reaching Cordoba at 5 p.m., 




Coatza 
Cos/cos 



SKETCH MAP OF ROUTE FROM CORDOBA TO HUILE. 



and getting back to Orizaba at 6.30 p.m. ? What could be 
pleasanter and easier than such a picnic, the train service being 
scheduled so conveniently ? What, indeed ? Only that 
things and trains did not hit it off well. 

The running of the Mexican Railway, from the capital to 
Vera Cruz, is above suspicion ; but the other line was different. 
The wheels of the train creaked and screeched as the large 
American cars grated against the rails of the tortuous curves 
now and then, indeed, they stuck fast, and then came a 
" wash-out," with a delay of several hours spent in mending the 
permanent way for the engine to be coaxed over the dangerous 
spot, hastily summoned Indians supporting the rails by means 
of crowbars used as levers. It was long after noon before 
the little station of Presidio was reached, with a flourishing 



A GREAT EXPERIENCE. 75 

factory, or hacienda the Finca de San Bernardino in the 
neighbourhood. The owner, a Spaniard, was most hospitably 
inclined, and we much regretted that our stay would be so 
short, when the up train crawled into the station an hour before 
its time. But this was a false alarm, as it was the train that 
had been due on the previous afternoon. Of course, we let that 
train go, not knowing that the fact of its having succeeded 
in going up had been deemed sufficient reason for suppressing 
the normal train. But this was the fact, and we were let in 
for a twenty-four hours' picnic without any preparations. 

What we saw and felt, heard and smelt, during that 
afternoon, the hot night, and the glorious morning that 
followed, as well as the ramble through forest and savannah, 
was enough to make us fall in love with the tierra caliente. 
The air thrilled with tropical life, in the literal sense of the 
word. Let me relate but one instance the great experience 
of this hasty visit. 

Whilst rambling along the edge of the forest we became 
conscious of a noise, at first resembling the mutter of a distant 
sawmill ; but on our reaching the other side of a cluster of 
trees this sound grew into a roar, like that of steam escaping 
from many engines, mingled with the sharp and piercing 
scream of saws. It came from a meadow containing a shallow 
pool of rainwater. In the wet grass, on its stalks, and on the 
ground, hopped about hundreds of large green tree-frogs ; 
nearer the pool they were to be seen in thousands, and in the 
water itself there were tens of thousands. Hopping, jumping, 
crawling, sliding, getting hold of each other, or sitting still. 
Most of them were in amplexus, and these couples were quiet, 
but the solitary males sat on their haunches and barked 
solemnly, with their resounding vocal bags protruding. Every 
now and then one was making for a mate, and often there 
were three or four hanging on to each other and rolling over. 
The din was so great that it was with difficulty that we caught 
the remarks that we shouted, although we were standing only 
a few feet apart. Each sweep of a butterfly net caught at 
least half-a-dozen frogs. 

Now the grassy pool, where the frogs were closest, was about 



76 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

thirty yards square (900 square yards), rather more than the 
area of a tennis lawn, and each square yard held from 
fifty to one hundred frogs many square yards certainly held 
several hundreds each. At the very lowest computation this 
gives 45,000 frogs ; and there was, besides, an outer ring of 
some five hundred square yards where frogs were fairly numerous, 
say from five to ten to the square yard, mostly spent females, 
but these few thousands we may leave out of the reckoning, 
to understate rather than overestimate the number. Supposing 
there were only 20,000 females, each spawning from 5,000 to 
10,000 eggs say only 5,000 the total would amount to just 
one hundred million eggs. The spawn literally covered both 
ground and water thickly. But the greatest surprise 
awaited us on the following morning, when we went to photo- 
graph the scene. There was not a single frog left : the water 
had all evaporated, and the whole place was glazed over with 
dried-up spawn ! The prospective chance of millions of little 
frogs was gone, their expectant parents having been deceived 
in calculating their day of incarnation. That was on the 4th 
of July, several weeks after the beginning of the rather fitful 
rainy season. 

These frogs belonged to the commonest kind viz., Hyla 
baudini found in tropical Mexico. We had already discovered 
half-a-dozen in the plantain-grove, tucked away and flattened 
between the sheath-like leaves and the stem ; several weeks 
later I caught one or two on a branch which was overhanging 
a stream. With these few exceptions I did not again come 
across this species, which shows how easy it is to miss even a 
common creature, and how easy to infer its absence, when it 
nevertheless exists in that very district in countless numbers. 
These tree-frogs cannot have assembled from a great distance 
at that deceptive pool ; they may possibly have represented 
but a fraction of the entire frog-population in the neighbour- 
hood. It was, further, a surprising fact that no snakes or birds 
of any kind were to be seen in pursuit of them, perhaps because 
it is not the custom of the tree-snakes to hunt for them when 
thus occupied in the open, and they probably felt they could 
be sure of their prey at the proper time and place in the trees. 



OUR TRAVELLING DOMICILE 77 

The railway which took us to Presidio goes from Cordoba 
to the Isthmus, where it joins the Tehuantepec line. Its 
official name is, or was, the " Vera Cruz al Pacifico," although 
it was not meant to extend to the Pacific, but was to 
have running power over the Isthmus line. It passes, roughly 
speaking, along the confines of the States of Vera Cruz and 
Oaxaca, going all the way through country practically un- 
known to the naturalist. It has since been repeatedly used 
by American zoologists. The line was advertised as the 
" Heart-of-the-Tropics-Route, one train each way daily, 
passing through wonderful valleys and picturesque plains, 
skirting the great sierras, passing all kinds of plantations, 
forests of palms and giant trees, the latter covered with orchids 
and tenanted by parrots and monkeys." All this is strictly 
true, only they forgot to warn the tourists that all along the 
two hundred and fifty odd miles from Cordoba to where the 
line loses itself in the wilderness, and during the four days 
which a successful down and up journey would take, there 
are only Indian villages and private haciendas, no inns, and no 
dining or sleeping cars. Of course not ! The only way to 
enjoy such a trip would be as the guest of an inspection party 
in the owner's well-found private car. However, we managed 
even better than that, travelling not exactly in luxury (far 
from it), but in absolute freedom. By great good luck Mr. 
Algernon Joy, one of the magnates of the line, befriended us at 
Orizaba, and practically put the use of the entire line at our 
disposal. The sacred private car was, of course, out of the 
question, as it could not be spared for several weeks, nor was 
it the kind of thing one would conscientiously turn into a sort 
of travelling show or menagerie. I therefore pleaded for the 
next best thing, namely, a large goods van. 

This proved in various ways better than a tent, since it solved 
the whole difficulty of transporting the equipment, without 
the ever-recurring worry of packing and unpacking it upon 
mules ; it provided a shelter that was absolutely waterproof, 
and last, not least, it kept us and our belongings raised some 
five feet above the ground. When locked it could be left un- 
guarded, as nobody was likely to run away with the car. Of 






78 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

course, it had some drawbacks for instance, it confined the 
stopping-places to stations possessing a shunting track, and it 
was naturally quite impossible to ascertain beforehand whether 
they would suit our purpose. Nevertheless, that particular 
car ("V. C. al P. No. 542 ") became our chief domicile and 
movable base. One end was curtained off by means of 
zarapes to form a bedroom, the centre served as drawing 
and reception-room, and the other end housed Mateo 
and our companion, together with a gradually increasing 
menagerie. 

However, at Cordoba, the train service being uncertain 
in the morning and the car being not yet quite ready it was 
recovering from the thorough cleaning which it had received 
the night was spent at a wooden shanty close to the station, 
run by a Chinaman, who was " casado " (lit. " housed with," 
i.e.. " married ") to an Indian woman. It was the usual abode 
of the railroad men and of occasional travellers, who literally 
fell into this hovel, the tiny " rooms " of which were formed 
by means of thin partitions, all giving upon the back-yard, 
over a mass of mud, dirt, and garbage of all sorts. But 
the woman was kind and attentive to my wife, and 
the food provided by the " Celestial " might have been 
worse if only I had not been so rash as to interview him in 
the kitchen ! 

Cordoba, founded by and named after one of the viceroys, 
is a strikingly pretty and quaint town, situated just within the 
" hot-lands," upon a slight hill at an elevation of 2,700 feet. 
The soil is rich, with a considerable amount of black humus, 
which, combined with an annual rainfall varying from eight 
to nine feet, produces an incredible fertility, every kind of 
tropical fruit and flower growing here in profusion. Moreover, 
there is no really dry season, not a month with less than two 
inches of rain, but the wettest time of the year is from June 
to the end of September, with an average monthly allowance 
of from sixteen to twenty inches. The rainfall at Orizaba 
is very much less, being but six feet, and that of Vera Cruz 
four to five. The town lies a long way off the station, the tram 
passing first through a succession of orchards, and then through 



CORDOBA. 



79 



narrow streets formed by picturesque, low houses, with eaves 
of curved tiles, which latter at times proffered a welcome shade, 
and at other times projected into the street, to right and left, 
thousands of little spouts of water. In the centre of the 
large plaza is a magnificent garden, and at least one of the 
hotels commands charming views. 




CHURCH OF CORDOBA. 



Our first stopping-place was Motzorongo, the name of a 
large hacienda. The administrator lodged and boarded us 
in the many-roomed house, Mateo remaining in the van, which 
became our laboratory. Motzorongo has an interesting history, 
typical of many such haciendas. Pacheco, a general of the 
Mexican army during the period of the foreign intervention, 
dealt the French a heavy blow at Puebla, and had the extremely 



80 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

bad (or, perhaps, as it turned out, rather good) luck to lose 
an arm and a leg during the engagement. He thus became one 
of the national heroes, and, after the final expulsion of the 
enemy, General Diaz rewarded him with enormous grants of 
land, much or most of which land had, after the reforms under 
President Juarez, been confiscated from the numerous religious 
orders. Motzorongo was one of these grants. A house was 
built for Pacheco, and at great cost a factory with all the plant 
for the refining of sugar, and, to crown all, a railway was con- 
structed from Cordoba to Motzorongo as its terminus, the 
beginning of the present " Ferro-carril de Vera Cruz al Pacifico." 
But the old warrior did not do well financially, and several 
times Diaz, who has never yet abandoned any of those who 
stood by him as comrades-in-arms during the bitter times of 
national stress, had to see him through his troubles. A huge 
ceiba tree (Bombax ceiba), now grown to beautiful proportions, 
was planted by the President during one of these sympathetic 
visits. Heavy mortgages had to be met when old Pacheco 
died, and the estate fell into utter ruin, the costly sugar factory 
plant with the rest. Then some foreign company bought it, 
and an administrator was employed to try and put it into shape 
again. 

The land was originally taken away from the natives by 
the religious orders, and when these were disestablished, their 
bad titles were, of course, taken over as good titles by the new 
Pacheco concern, and the natives therefore still had to pay 
rent, in money, to Motzorongo. Those of Josefines and of 
La Raya, dependencies of the big place, had, moreover, to 
do " fronde " service, being obliged, for very small pay, to work 
two days per week. During Pacheco's patriarchal and easy- 
going reign this went on well enough, just as it had been doing 
for several hundred years, and his grave, not far from the house, 
was still visited by the natives, who wanted to perform certain 
heathen rites there. But the long interregnum following his 
death had utterly demoralised the natives, who became 
good-for-nothing loafers, and could only occasionally be induced 
to work for six or seven reales per day. After mid-week they 
turned up sixty or eighty strong, until they were paid on the 



FASHION IN MACHETES 



81 



Saturday. On the Monday perhaps only three or four of them 
came, a few more on Tuesday, and so on, to the despair of the 
administrator, who never knew how many workers he was 
about to have available. 

There was a large store, a shop stocked with every imagin- 
able kind of goods that the natives might be induced to buy, 




THE HERPETOLOGISTS OF MOTZORONGO. 



from tinned meat to cigars, from milk to cognac, and from 
woollen blankets to machetes. Some of these machetes were 
of American, others of German make ; both kinds were ser- 
viceable, but were not in great demand, for the simple reason 
that the pattern was not that which was fancied in that 
district. The various tribes are most particular about their 
machetes, not only as to the shape and proportions of the 



82 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

blade, but also as to the shape and pattern of the handle, 
wherein immutable fashion reigns supreme. It was with some 
difficulty that we established trading relations with the 
people for collecting purposes. This new trade, however, 
proved profitable to the shop. I procured a handful of small 
coin to pay the boys with, and when, on the same evening, I 
went again for change, hoping that this might not incommode 
the storekeeper, he opened the locker and said cheerfully : 
' There they are, take them again ; they will all come back to 
me." The boys had at once spent their earnings in sweets 
and other more necessary commodities, and thus these coins 
circulated rapidly. 

Some labourers brought a pair of fine boa constrictors, 
which they had found ensconced in the ground while hoeing a 
field. Being gentle creatures, as all boas are, in contra- 
distinction to pythons, they were taken to our car and put into 
a barrel. On the following morning both snakes were gone, 
but after much searching one was recaptured under the platform 
near the store, the other being reluctantly given up as lost. 
Several days later, my wife, overhauling the baggage, found 
the truant. It was easy enough, with patience, to recapture 
him, but my wife and I had our hands full with the creature, 
which would have been more than strong enough to break one's 
arm if allowed to coil round it, and thus get a purchase. The 
creature never lost its temper, but was most deliberate in its 
movements, and since we happened to be alone, to hold it was 
as much as we could do. But we were not rehearsing the 
Laocoon group ; a passing boy, therefore, was invited to help 
us in putting the reptile into a box. " Como no ? " " Why 
not," said he, and climbed into the van. But he was not pre- 
pared for another snake's head to shoot out w r hen he raised the 
lid of the barrel, and only by dint of much forcible persuasion 
and patience were the boy and the snakes prevented from 
bolting. The worst of such little interludes is the utter ex- 
haustion that supervenes in a country where every additional 
exertion causes streams of perspiration, and upsets one's mental 
balance. When one can loll in a chair on the verandah, with a 
cooling drink at one's elbow, life in the tropics is delightful ; 






FISHING WITH DYNAMITE 83 

but when one has a hundred odd jobs to do, besides the day's 
active work, life assumes an altogether different aspect ; and 
we were not lazy, because we had not come merely to amuse 
ourselves. There was the Rio Blanco, the White River, so 
called on account of its somewhat whitish water, which rushed 
along its boulder-strewn bed of limestone where we went to 
fish in the deeper pools. Easier said than done ; even the pre- 
parations took two days' nagging and worrying over. Plenty 
of dynamite cartridges were kept at one of the outhouses : it 
cost us one day to get them ; then came the hunt for the fuses, 
and these were discovered at the store together with lamp- 
wicks, no doubt on the strength of their similarity. It was 
always the other man who knew, or who was in charge, or who 
had the key, and he invariably was the man who happened to 
be away. Thus went the second day, and still something was 
wanting the detonators, which, on the following morning, 
were coaxed out of the storekeeper's coat pocket. Mateo and I 
had intended to start operations in the cool of the morning ; 
it was already hot before we got under way at last, and then, 
to reach a suitable place, we had to cross a field of Indian corn. 
That was a clearing which had been made by cutting down 
and setting fire to the trees, the charred trunks and bigger 
branches being left in the position in which they happened 
to have fallen. They formed regular stockades, and the 
reverberating heat was maddening. At last we prepared f ex- 
action, to find that the fuses did not fit into the detonators. 
However, all went well, and in the excitement of retrieving 
the stunned fishes we managed to ford the stream, which in 
our subsequent calmer mood we lacked the courage to recross. 
We only got back by wriggling through the overhanging 
boughs, and then on to a fallen tree, along which we crawled 
on all fours all this encumbered with a rifle, a landing net, 
glass bottles, and pockets full of cartridges and spoils. 

Then came the tramp home in the noon-day sun, the 
pickling and labelling of specimens, and the making of notes, 
with many bruises and scratches and a burning skin, a 
squeamish appetite, and the petty mental disturbances 
all more than sufficient for the day. In the evening came 



84 



THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 



the setting of traps for various kinds of opossums (Didelphys 
virginiana and the little D. opossum] and little rodents. 

It was quite a relief to prowl about in the beautiful forest, 
prying into hollow trees, turning over logs and stones, or 
which was generally more effective sitting still and watching 
for whatever might turn up. One day a native, with Mateo 
and myself, had been out collecting at our leisure. We had 
shot, or rather stunned, some fish and frogs ; had caught one 
little tree-frog (Hyla staufferi), hitherto known only from 




VIEW FROM MOTZORONGO ! CITLALTEPETL IN THE DISTANCE. 



Guatemala, and had found a nest resembling that of a bird 
in a bush, whence jumped out a mother opossum (Didelphys 
opossum), called " raton tlacuache," with nine young. We 
assisted the dog in treeing a carnivorous beast of some kind, 
had caught a snake or two, and then one of us stumbled over 
a root that stretched across the path. The Indian hacked 
at this with his machete, and I picked out of the loosened mould 
a treasure indeed, in the shape of a miserable-looking, blind, 
limbless kind of lizard Anelytropsis papillosus ! The two 
type specimens " from near Jalapa " had been described in 



A SHOOTING AFFRAY 85 

1885 by E. D. Cope ; this, the third specimen ever got, is now 
at the British Museum. 

Well satisfied we had a smoke, and, half-an-hour afterwards, 
the Indian stretched out his hand and picked from off the very 
stump upon which we rested a fine Corythophanes hernandezi, 
a rare and curiously-shaped lizard, of which I only got two 
more specimens. He had looked at that loose, upstanding piece 
of bark several times, but it was not until it moved that he 
recognised the " teterete," the Nahoa term for any long- 
legged and long-tailed climbing lizard of the Iguanid family. 
These " teterete de tierra " remind one of a chameleon in 
respect of their shape, and their light brown colouring enhances 
their apparent resemblance to a dead branch or piece of bark. 
I succeeded in taking this specimen home alive, where it soon 
became tame.. The rivers and pools all through the " hot-lands " 
are tenanted by another iguanid (Basiliscus americanus), the 
" teterete de agua," " basilisk," " pasarios," or " ferryman." 
This is a vegetable feeder, growing more than a foot in length, 
with helmet-shaped head, the back and tail of the male, which 
is larger than the female, having a high, reddish-coloured, 
serrated crest, the prevailing colour of the body being greenish. 
These lizards are very shy, and sit mostly on branches near the 
edge of, or overhanging, the water. At the slightest alarm 
they plunge in and then run, half erect, and rapidly beating the 
water with their long hind limbs, helped by their long wriggling 
tail, across the pond or stream, to climb up and hide in the 
shrubs on the other side. It is a curious sensation to see a 
large lizard thus ferrying itself across the water, and to hear 
the rushing, paddling noise. 

The station of Motzorongo had been without a telegraph 
office, but one morning an operator arrived, who was installed 
with his instruments in one of the empty buildings. This man 
caused, later on, a considerable upset and trouble. He had 
brought his wife with him, a tall white woman, with a profusion 
of red, touzled hair, the sight of whom proved too much 
for an amorous Irish clerk, and conjugal recriminations were 
the result. Eventually this was reported to us long after 
the event the husband, who was a methodical man, sent 



86 



THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 



to the capital for a new six-shooter and a box of cartridges, 
put all his account-books in order, wrote an explanatory letter 
to his superiors, indicating that he might be prevented from 
continuing to perform his duties, went straight to the stores, 
fired two bullets into the offender, and a third clean through 
him, and thereupon gave himself up to the first person who 
cared to arrest him. 




MAZATECA WOMAN. 

The original offender lingered long between life and death, 
to recover under the fostering and assiduous care of the siren 
who caused the trouble. The husband, who was the actual 
culprit in the drama, being all that time kept in jail, and a 
Mexican hot-country jail is not a sanatorium. The magistrate, 
pressed by friends of both parties, found it difficult to dis- 
charge his duty. If he tried a man who, under much pro- 
vocation, had drilled a few holes into another man, the 



THE SEQUEL 



87 



sentence could not possibly satisfy the friends of the wounded ; 
and if he were to acquit him, and the wounded man were to die 
later, it would be still less satisfactory. Obviously it was a case 
of " manana veremos todo," " we'll see to it all to-morrow," 
and many repeated " pasados mananas." Solvitur ambulando, 
as time goes on. As in course of time it became clear that it 
was not a case of homicide, and since both men had suffered, 




A MAZATECA HOUSE. TYPE I. 



and the siren had behaved so very impartially by even nursing 
the wounded man, the case fizzled out, and the trio left the 
spot as being one that was too unhealthy to live in. 

The natives throughout the valley from Cordoba to Mot- 
zorongo speak Spanish, and are supposed to be Mexicanos 
(vulgo Aztecs), who, in olden times, had extended their influence 
into the lowlands of Vera Cruz. To be quite correct, only the 
dominant settlers in the villages are Aztecs, the rest of the 



88 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

population being of doubtful affinities. A few miles to the 
south, however, lives a genuine tribe, the Mazatecas, who 
belong to the great Mixteco-Zapoteca family. Some of the 
land of the Motzorongo Company extends a long way into the 
territory of this interesting tribe, one of whose " caciques," or 
chiefs, a young and courteous fellow, invited us to pay him 
a visit on the Rio Tonto. 

We set out one fine morning due southwards to the large 
village of Tezonapan, four miles off, where many hundreds of 
natives had collected for a fair. Then followed a long ride 
through most impressive primeval forest, over a road made by 
simply clearing a broad path through the luxurious growth, 
the foothills or spurs of the sierra being crossed to the west- 
wards at an average altitude of about 1,000 feet above sea-level. 
Owing to these spurs the path dipped and rose again, with a 
water runnel, or morass, here and there, bridged over by felled 
trees. In bygone days the road must have been quite 
tolerable ; there was even a telephone wire to Josefines, but 
many of the poles had been broken down, and the wire, partly 
cut and taken away by natives, made the most awkward 
entanglements for the horses, as it twisted about and coiled in 
the grass. This sufficiently explained why telephonic com- 
munication with Josefines " had recently got out of order." 

This place, which we reached late in the afternoon, was a 
dependency of the chief hacienda, and was in utter ruins, 
being only tenanted by an old Indian couple as caretakers. 
Nothing whatever was to be got there except shelter, and we 
spent a lively night. To begin with, it was just the right kind 
of night, as the old Indian sympathetically explained, for the 
" chaquistles " to turn out in myriads, these being tiny black 
gnats, which settle upon the skin and burn it like red-hot 
grains of sand. Then rats rummaged about under the beds, 
to see what supper the unwonted strangers might have left, 
and scuttled and rustled around, squeaking and chattering as 
they ran. At last sleep came, but was soon broken by a grand 
outburst in the shape of opossums which hunted the rats and 
caught some of them in the palm-thatched roof. The caretaker 
said that it was probably their " masacoatl," the boa, which 



A CHARMING INDIAN 89 

had been hunting in the roof, but it did not sound like the long- 
drawn rustle that is made by these creatures. Although this 
was a " snaky " place, we caught only two small specimens in 
the kitchen whilst preparing breakfast. 

The next day, fortunately rainless, was spent in still grander 
forest, until we came at last to La Ray a, a kind of Ultima 
Thule settlement close to the Rio Tonto. The great man, in 




STARTING FROM JOSEFINES. 

command of the large store-house, was Sr. La Barraque, a most 
agreeable young fellow of Spanish-French extraction. He 
was married to a quiet, good-looking Mazateca girl, to whom he 
was much attached, and for whose uneducated Indian ways 
he very pleasantly apologised. This was quite unnecessary, 
since her manners were charming. She spent much of her 
time in embroidering cotton " huipiles," or female garments, 
and table-covers, with the typical Mazateca patterns. He 



90 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

himself was something of a sportsman, having quite a 
collection of firearms, antlers of deer, skulls of the jaguar, 
and of the smaller ocelot, or tiger cat, all of which beasts were 
plentiful. 

We were installed in the hall of judgment, assembly room, 
town hall, or whatever one likes to call the large official 
municipal structure, a typical " hot-country " erection, con- 
sisting mainly of a thick, high-pitched roof of palm-leaves, 
with great, low eaves. The house was made entirely of vegetable 
matter, without a single nail or other piece of metal. The 




EMBROIDERED " HUIPILES " MAZATECA TRIBE, EASTERN OAZACA. 

framework was of unhewn stems and beams, the walls and 
the roof of the ribs of palm-leaves, neatly lashed together with 
the natural rope-like cords of the " bejugo de agua " plant, or 
with the flattened, creeping stems of some other liana, called, 
from its obvious resemblance thereto, " costillas de vaca," 
or " cow's riblets." This latter plant is poisonous ; well 
pounded, and then left to soak in a stream, it is used for catching 
fish. The interior of the room itself measured about twenty- 
four feet by fifteen. The construction of such houses (and the 
others were all of the same kind, only smaller) is very destruc- 
tive of palm-trees. One side of the roof of our hall alone 



GLORIOUS VIEWS 93 

required some eighty palm-ribs, and the whole roof, therefore, 
took some three hundred and twenty leaves, a single perfect 
palm-tree possessing only about twenty of the required length 
(from fifteen to eighteen feet). This implies the lopping off 
of the leaves of at least sixteen trees for the roof alone. Besides 
these, many ribs are required for the wattled walls, which in 
so hot and moist a climate have to be renewed every three or 
four years, the stalks rotting away near the ground, in spite of 
the protection afforded by the broad, overhanging eaves. Since 
a palm-tree does not recover from such a severe lopping within 
a few years, the inevitable result is that near an Indian settle- 
ment most of the palms present a deplorable, maimed 
appearance, and have become scarce. 

Not far from the town hall stood the prison, a small cage- 
like structure of strong beams, roughly hewn into shape. All 
round it the flat piece of ground was kept scrupulously clean, 
and the raised portion, which stood well up above its immediate 
neighbourhood, commanded exquisite views. Towards the 
west the river went winding through low forest and open cattle- 
pastures, while across the river were densely- wooded hills in 
well-nigh unknown country. But the grandest views were those 
to the west and north. In the foreground was the conical, 
square-topped Cerro de Masatiopa ; beyond, precipitous cliffs 
of yellow limestone and jagged sierras were silhouetted against 
the horizon ; and due north-west, across high, grassy meadows, 
impenetrable bushland, green forests, and purple and blue 
hills, arose the resplendent white cone of El Pico, here no longer 
called Citlaltepetl, but " Nassitshoa," or the " Thunder- 
Mountain." 

Meals were taken in the big store-house amongst lively 
company. Two tame, yellow-headed parrots climbed about 
the house, and a third, the oldest and most independent, sat 
on a rafter above the raised hearth eating a " jilote," or cob 
of Indian corn, and chattered Mazateca to his young mistress, 
a shy servant. Turkeys, geese, fowls, and two families of 
musk ducks, with several dogs and cats, went in and out of the 
house, that lacked both doors and windows. In the evening 
toads began to mutter, to trill, or to mew like kittens, now and 



94 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

then giving a snarl in deep bass and we heard all the voices 
of the plentiful Bufo marinus, from the tiny half -inch baby 
born this spring to the old six-inch mother, who during the 
daytime sat in her own cavity under the waterbut. 

The Rio Tonto, a north-western tributary of the mighty 
Papaloapan,* was in flood, a big, green-yellow, rushing stream, 
with delightfully cool water, in which we swam about to our 
heart's content, the sensation of coolness being refreshing 
beyond description to our sun-heated bodies. Although very 
rapid the river was deep, in many places about twenty-five 
feet, and the canoe-men soon ceased to touch bottom with their 
long poles. The canoes, long, hollowed-out trunks, were most 
unsteady, and only poles, no oars or paddles, were used. 
Owing to the fact that all the sandbanks were submerged, it 
was a bad time to try and see crocodiles, which are said to be 
numerous, and the same remark applied to the tortoises, but 
a small collection of fish was made, and meanwhile we beheld 
an amusing sight. On the opposite high bank was a kind of 
landing-place. The rains had thoroughly soaked this spot, 
which consisted of a steep incline of thirty or forty yards, and 
a number of naked, coffee-coloured boys amused themselves 
with slithering down the slippery red soil ; one of the boldest 
shooting down from time to time feet foremost into the 
river. 

The whole district appeared to be an ophidian paradise. 
The most dreaded was the " palanca " (Lachesis kinceolafus), 
from the bite of one of which a boy had died within twenty- 

* This river well deserves its Aztec name, which means " Butterfly-river.'' 
It was tantalising to see the great blue Morphos rapidly sailing overhead and 
then hovering over the water, always out of reach, and so swift in its move- 
ments that pursuit was hopeless. Yet even these resplendently beautiful 
insects had their enemies ; not birds, but big dragon-flies, which darted out 
of ambush on the banks of the river, and with a shrill noise, like little rockets, 
made for the passing butterflies. The only chano.e of escape for the latter 
was, apparently, to reach some branch upon which to alight, and by folding 
up its large wings to hide its gorgeous colours. We all know how easily a 
butterfly can suddenly thus become invisible, but whether this dodge is 
sufficient to elude the many-facetted eyes of the rapacious pursuer is another 
question. A great physiologist, Joh. Mueller, has written a paper on "The 
Sight of Insects," in which he proved, to his own satisfaction, that dragon- 
flies could not possibly discern the two ends of a stick, unless this was at 
least a yard in length ! 



WARNING COLOURS 95 

four hours, the reptile in question having a partly digested 
'" sabanera " (Coluber corals] in its stomach. Coral snakes 
were common, as also were certain other harmless kinds 
(Urotheca elapoides), almost identical with the former in their 
beautiful coloration. Tree-snakes abounded, but they were, as 
usual, difficult to observe ; such, for instance, were the whipcord- 
like Himantodes cenchoa, Leptophis, and the long and slender- 
snouted Oxybelis ceneux, called " bejuquillo," or " suchil," 
by the natives. 

CORAL, SNAKE3 AND " WARNING " COLOURS. 

Coral snakes are beautiful and very poisonous. For- 
tunately, they are not vicious, and the gape of their mouth is 
so limited that only the larger specimens can inflict a dangerous 
bite. When they do bite they do not strike like vipers, but 
deliberately select a spot, bite slowly and chew it, so as to work 
their very small fangs well in. They are usually paraded as 
glaring instances of warning coloration, but I am not at all 
sure whether this is justifiable. Certainly these Elaps arc 
most conspicuous and beautiful objects. Black and carmine 
or coral red, in alternate rings, are the favourite pattern ; some- 
times with narrow golden-yellow rings between them, as if 
to enhance this beautiful combination. But these snakes are 
inclined to be nocturnal in their habits, and, except when 
basking, spend most of their time under rotten stumps, in 
mouldy ground, or in ants' nests, in search of their prey, which 
must be very small, to judge from the size of the mouth. 

Black and red are very strong contrasts in the daytime, 
but this combination ceases to be effective in the dark. It 
is an easy and suggestive experiment to cut out and paste 
together patterns of variously coloured unglazed paper, and 
then gradually turn down the light to watch the effect. Upon 
a black ground red is the first colour to disappear, or rather to 
produce in combination with it a neutral tint ; next follows 
orange, then green and blue and lastly yellow, which is far less 
easily effaced than white upon black. We conclude that in 
most cases the combination of red and black is a self-effacing, 
rather than a warning, pattern. 



96 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

However, let that pass. There is another, greater, difficulty. 
It is usual to explain the occurrence of supposed warning colours 
in harmless creatures as case of mimicry. No doubt there 
may be fair instances of the mimicry of a dangerous animal 
by a harmless one, both of which live side by side, or at least 
within reasonable distance of each other. One is liable here 
to argue in a circle. Instances of mimicry, beyond cavil, seem 
to occur between the coralline Elaps and a number of other, 
harmless, snakes. But let us analyse the cases. It is very 
difficult to ascertain the distribution of the true Elaps in Mexico, 
since the natives are in the habit of calling any black and red 
snake a " coraliUo," although, when pressed, they admit that 
some are harmless, while others are poisonous. For instance, 
in Southern Guerrero, at San Luis, the " coralillo " was the 
harmless Coronella micropholis, of which a specimen was said 
to live in every kitchen under the water-tub. Several kinds of 
harmless snakes, belonging to different groups, inhabit the same 
districts together with the poisonous coral snake, and, what 
is more, they lead the same kind of life under rotten stumps 
and in ants' nests. The resemblance of the striking colours 
and pattern is sometimes very close, quite enough to make 
one reluctant to handle them.* There seems to be no reason 
why we should not call these cases of mimicry ; and yet this 
is most likely a wrong interpretation, since such harmless snakes 
are also found in districts where the Elaps does not occur, 
not only in Mexico, but likewise in far distant parts of the 
world, where neither elapines nor any other similarly-coloured 
poisonous snakes exist. To interpret this as an instance of 
" warning colours " in a perfectly harmless snake, which has 
no chance of mimicry, amounts in such cases to nonsense, and 
we have to look for a different explanation upon physiological 
and other grounds. 

* For instance, Elaps fttlvius and the harmless Urotheca elapoides, one of 
the Opisthoglypha, were caught at La Raya. Streptophorus atratus and 
Geophis semidoliatus, individually, often resemble coral snakes for instance, 
at Orizaba, and in the tropics, at La Raya, and near Motzorongo. The 
Dipsadine Homalocranium and Scolecophis are climbers and diurnal, thereby 
differing considerably from Elaps. Coluber porphyraceus, also with alternate 
black and red rings, lives in China. 



AN ANT'S MUSHROOM BED. 97 

LEAF-CUTTING ANTS. 

In such forests our eyes are sure to be attracted by a 
procession of apparently migrating pieces of fresh green leaves, 
all neatly cut out and walking in an upright position, as each 
is held in the jaws of an ant. Let us follow this stream to its 
source. It comes down from the stem of an orange or lime 
tree in our host's most cherished plantation. Thousands of 
ants are sitting upon the leaves, each holding on to the edge 
and scissoring out with its jaws a piece of the leaf, the cut form- 
ing part of a neat circle. This is allowed to drop, to be carried 
away by the other ants which are waiting below ; or else the 
cutting ant jerks the load, which is many times larger and 
heavier than itself, on to its back and climbs down. Within a 
few hours that tree may be stripped of all its green, only the 
ribs of the leaves being left, and it will probably die unless the 
attack was made during the sprouting season, but in any case 
that year's prospect of a harvest is gone. Now let us follow 
the procession along its well-beaten track, where nothing is 
allowed to grow, because of the millions of little feet which have 
trampled over it. It leads over many obstacles in a straight 
line for hundreds of yards until we come to a slight rise of 
ground in the forest, where we sink half up to the knee into a 
blackish-brown, smeary compost of rotten, ill-smelling vegetable 
matter. The mound may be a foot or two in height, and may 
measure several yards across. What we see is only the used-up 
or spent manure, the remains of the millions of bits of leaves 
which had been taken into the cavities in the ground, there 
to be further chewed into pulp, and then allowed to ferment 
in the countless passages and chambers of the mound, which 
is honeycombed in every direction. In the fermenting mass 
grows a fungus in profusion, and this forms the sole food of 
the ants and their larvae. We have, in fact, walked into a huge, 
scientifically-constructed mushroom bed a farm for the 
cultivation of mushrooms, and the nursery of the independent 
state of some species of Eciton ants. That the whole thing is 
in good working order is soon impressed upon us by the 
territorial army, the garrison of soldiers who are swarming 

H 



98 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

out to attack, whilst the workers rush about in the well-known 
style of disturbed ants. 

The study of these and similar leaf-cutting ants has pro- 
duced an enormous literature within the last dozen years. 
It is a fascinating subject, leading straight into fairyland ; and 
it is also easier to clothe some of the astounding facts in fairy 
language, than to try and express the complicated conditions 
in scientific terms, which let us be honest sound very learned , 
and yet may be not a whit better when we are hard pressed for 
their real meaning ! It is a case of " myrmecophytic sym- 
biosis," through the adaptive transformation of originally 
suffering into myrmecoxenous plants. We prefer a more 
frivolous rendering of " myrmecoxenismus." Trees are liable 
to be visited by the attacks of leaf-cutting ants especially 
introduced trees, which are quite unprepared for such con- 
ditions, while native trees have had time to hit upon some 
defensive plan. The best way of fighting ants is to get other 
ants to fight them. Lucky are the trees which possess such 
inducements to attract the mercenary ants, either by means of 
honey and other food, or by offering them shelter. Thrice 
lucky are the plants which can combine such attractions. 
Some acacias have managed it. Their twigs grow pairs of 
bull's horns, hollow spikes, modified stipules ; ants bite a hole 
into the base and live in these fortresses ; and on the tips of 
the pinnate leaflets is a little gland or other modification, full 
of honey, or a proteid, or some other stuff which is good to eat, 
and can be spared by the plant. And these little bodies are 
beloved by the ants, which, thus receiving board and lodging, 
are content to stay, to garrison and to defend furiously the 
hospitable tree against any aggressor. The system answers 
well. How it has come about, whether by teleology or by 
natural means, is another question, the answer to which must 
depend upon personal inclination. There is no arguing in 

such matters. 

***** 

In moist places we found growing the " bejugo de agua," 
a long, straggling liana, the stem of which contains an astonish- 
ing amount of water, to obtain which the soft stem is cut 



AN AWKWARD ACCIDENT 99 

through in two places about a yard apart, whereupon the water 
flows out readily. A piece nearly a yard long, and of the 
thickness of an arm, yielded an average-sized glassful of water, 
quite pure, rather cool, and without any taste. The natives 
make use of the plant for quenching their thirst. 

On our way back to Josefines, which was again to be our 
resting-place, an awkward accident happened. The night's 
rain had made the road in the forest very wet, and whilst we 
were crossing a creek by one of the " bridges," consisting of 
several-tree stems laid across side by side, my wife's horse 
slipped between two of the stems and jammed both her and 
itself between the beams, my wife being firmly pinned down by 
her dress and one leg. We had to cut her off the kicking horse, 
which every moment threatened to fall upon us as we stood in 
the mud below. To liberate the horse was an easy matter ; we 
had only to move the beams asunder, when it turned a complete 
somersault and plunged into the mire, its legs kicking in the 
air. For a wonder, no bones were broken, and the fright seemed 
to affect Mateo and myself more than the lady, who calmly sat 
down to stitch up her dress whilst we got the trembling horse 
up again. Mateo, always excitable, became quite exuberant 
when, at the lunch improvised soon afterwards, we drank the 
lady's health in some extra strong liquor. When, further on, 
an armadillo scuttled across the path, Mateo came out with a 
revolver, which he had concealed until then, to shoot behind 
our backs at imaginary jaguars. 

An attempt to get some water-tortoises in a small, but 
deep, lagoon with steep banks ended in failure, as it had done a 
few days before, the turtles plunging into the water long before 
we could get through the thick brushwood. But there was 
another and larger lagoon in the midst of beautiful forest. 
A big tree, which had fallen conveniently into the pool, gave 
us access, allowing us to observe several crocodiles that were 
floating in it, but every attempt at collecting in that paradise 
was hopeless. As usual, the brushwood formed so dense a 
tangle, with formidable thorny creepers, that progress was 
almost impossible, and certainly useless, since the noise made 
by forcing one's way through was more than sufficient to frighten 

H'2 



100 



THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 



away or into hiding every creature for dozens of yards around. 
Then came black, oozy mud, and worst of all, near the margin 
of the pool, another kind of tangle, formed by roots, whilst 
shrubs and trees barred access to the water. It was always 
the same aggravating condition, with few exceptions, always 
an apt illustration of "so near and yet so far." 

Another pool, between Josefines and Motzorongo, the 
Laguna Grande, in a somewhat more open place, proved more 




A MAZATECA HOUSE. TYPE II. 



accessible. It was a big swamp, with a large patch of 
permanent water. I had scarcely gone a hundred yards through 
the high grass when a full-sized black Coluber corals slipped 
from its basking-place on a stump to the right, not a yard in 
front of my feet, and rushed straight for the water ; the 
creature looked ridiculously long, there seemed to be no end 
to it in the grass, and yet it could not possibly have measured 
more than ten feet. I confess it made me jump, and this 
startled a big, fat crocodile which otherwise would have let 
me pass within five yards. It fairly hustled through the 



WILD-LIFE ROUND A POOL 101 

reeds, and with a big splash disappeared into the water, to 
reappear, with nose and eyes peeping out, some forty yards 
further on. Of course I missed that head. The report silenced 
the lovely little Inca doves, cinnamon brown, with delicate 
white and grey crossbars on the under-side, which were, as 
usual, billing and cooing in the trees ; but it also startled a pair 
of parras, or jaganas, which became quite beside themselves, 
loudly vociferating, rising a few yards in the air, then alighting 
and running upon what seemed the surface of the water itself, 
though in reality they were merely running over the broad 
leaves of nymphseas and other floating plants, which their 
long toes, and still longer straight claws, enable them to do to 
perfection. Each of these pairs seemed to have its special 
domain ; when at last one left off, another pair was sure to 
take its place, with the same frantic excitement, sometimes 
flapping like peewits close above, then sitting down, screaming, 
and pointing at me for a whole minute, and then flying off 
again. 

There was much to see in and around that pool, which in 
many places was as treacherous as a floating bog of rushes 
and peat, and much intersected by open water, so that I was 
not sorry when, after an hour's struggle, I had made the round, 
without having collected so much as a frog. The heat hover- 
ing over that swamp had nearly dazed me. 



CHAPTER V. 

FEATURES OP TROPICAL FORESTS. 

The conditions necessary for Tropical Forests General impression and leading 
Features The fierce Struggle for Existence The effect of Environment upon 
Animals and Plants Adaptations to Arboreal Life The prevailing Colours 
and Patterns Cases of convergent Development. 

The conditions necessary for the production of a typical 
tropical forest are moisture and heat. The mean temperature 
is that of the tropics, say 80 P., rarely sinking below 70 or 
exceeding 90. The moisture must be due to rain, and a fair 
minimum for the annual fall is 200 cm., or 80 inches, the more 
the better. This rain must be distributed rather evenly that 
is, seasons of drought must not be too prolonged ; the dry 
period, if there is one at all, must not amount to three months, 
lest the vegetation come to a standstill, thus causing deciduous 
leaves and other great changes in the general aspect. 

There are three big regions in the world which fulfil these 
conditions. First : Tropical America, with the huge Amazon 
basin as its centre, called by some authors " Hylogaea," or 
" Dendrogaea," the world of trees. It extends through 
Central America into Mexico, mainly on the Atlantic or eastern 
side, the backbone of the country causing a very striking 
division. Secondly : Equatorial West and Central Africa, 
mainly the Congo basin. Thirdly : Indo-China and the 
Malay Islands. Smaller centres exist in many other parts of 
the world, for instance, on the Zambesi, the east coast of 
Madagascar, the south-western seaboard of India and Ceylon, 
the north coast of Queensland, several of the West Indian 
Islands, etc. 



TROPICAL RAIN AND ITS EFFECTS 103 

The rainfall of 80 inches is in itself nothing very tremendous. 
It is true that we call a climate with half that amount decidedly 
wet e.g., the north-west of Scotland and the wettest parts of 
Ireland enjoy about 60 inches but in the tropics the rain makes 
more of an impression by its being generally limited, in duration, 
to a few hours of the day, as is the case with a thunderstorm, 
gentle rain with a fall continuing steadily for a number of hours 
in succession being a rare occurrence. With the onset of the 
big rainy season the water comes down in torrents, and at 
first may continue both day and night without interruption, 
but the fall soon becomes more regular, and it then rains every 
other, and, finally, every third day, the storms being restricted 
to a few hours' duration. A fall of half-an-inch makes a rainy 
day with us. A fall of an inch during a two hours' storm is 
of common occurrence in the tropics ; moreover, torrential 
storms are frequent, a few days' intermission being made up for 
by a regular downpour. For instance, in September, 1902, 
on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, six inches fell within two 
nights and a day, which means a continuous fall of one inch for 
every six hours. 

These prolonged rains, always accompanied by thunder- 
storms, make camping in the forest an unmitigated misery. 
The electric discharges produce a great quantity of nitric 
acid, which is washed out of the air into the humus, and this 
process is no doubt one of the main causes of the incredible 
exuberance of the vegetation in every tropical rainy 
district. 

What is the general impression of such a rain-forest ? 
It does not begin gradually. On its outskirts it is 
fringed by an impenetrable wall of luxuriant herbage, shrubs 
and creepers, the tout ensemble recalling a lavishly-arranged 
bank of flowers at a flower-show. It can be entered only by 
hacking and slashing a path through the tangled growth, 
which closes up again within a few weeks, except where traffic 
may have produced a narrow, meandering track, from which 
it is impossible to deviate either to right or left. Once inside, 
we are in a gloomy, stuffy forest, consisting of tall straight 
trees, which branch out at a great height above us, there inter- 



104 



THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 



lacing and forming a dense canopy of green, through which 
passes little or no sunlight. This absence of direct light 
effectively prevents the growth of underwood, and there are 
no green, luxuriant plants, no flowers or grass. The ground 
is brown and black, covered with many inches of rotting leaves 
and twigs, all turning into a steaming mould. From our 




TROPICAL FOREST. 



point of view below the canopy, the leaves, branches, and even 
bright-coloured birds, look black, and this is still more the 
case where, by contrast, such objects are seen through a rift 
in the canopy against the glaring sky. 

Many of the tree-stems are entwined by the twisted rope- 
like stems of lianas, long strands resembling the rusty frayed-out 
strands of a wire cable, ugly in shape, and without branch or 



PLANT-LIFE IN THE FOREST 105 

leaf, until they reach the crowns of the trees, where they 
intermingle with the green roof and creep across from tree- 
top to tree-top, perhaps for hundreds of feet. Many a liana 
has strangled its support, which has rotted away and dis- 
appeared. The creeper now, made fast to the ground, ascends 
straight through mid-air and there vanishes, like the rope of 
an Indian juggler. Liana is a comprehensive term. Many 
of them are vines of the genus Vitis e.g., Vitis pterophora ; 
where these are not indigenous, one or other of the numerous 
Bignonia family undergo the same modification. 

Wherever there is a break, where a tree has crashed down 
and made an opening, the other trees are covered with masses 
of climbing arums. Phyllodendrons send down their straight, 
wire-like sinkers and air-roots, until these are anchored in 
the ground fifty feet below ; their large scroll-like blossoms, 
of white, yellow, or red, are visible from afar ; the sup- 
porting stem is covered with a network of the climbing 
stems, which become receptacles for the collection of mould, 
or hot-beds for other plants, mosses, selaginellas, ferns, lichens, 
and a host of gorgeous orchids, bromelias, and other epiphytes, 
the seeds of which have started to grow many feet above the 
ground, so that these plants never know the ground proper. 
They were born aloft, have grown aloft, generation after 
generation, until they have forgotten what it was like to grow 
up from the bottom, and thus they have become epiphytes. 
Many of these (though never their primary supports, the trees 
themselves) have dodges for conducting, collecting, and storing 
the rainwater, all their leaves forming a nest-like whorl, as is 
the fashion of some bromelias and tillandsias, or maybe one 
leaf has developed into a scroll-like receptacle, or actual cups 
have been invented. Only rough and thick-barked trees 
tolerate such epiphytic masses ; others, perhaps the majority, 
protect themselves by having a very thin and slippery bark, 
and, to make quite sure, peel periodically like our plane-trees. 

A great feature of such a tropical forest is that it is com- 
posed of an astonishing number of different genera and species 
of trees, forming the greatest possible mixture of all kinds, 
while continuous groves, or even clumps, of one kind of tree are 



106 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

rarely met with. Whilst the temperate region has extensive 
oak, beech, and pine forests, mixed, of course, with other kinds, 
no such uniformity exists in the tropical belt, unless we ascend 
into the mountains. There is cause for this variety. The 
exuberance of life is so great, and therefore the struggle for 
individual existence is so severe, that there is little chance for 
two trees of the same kind to succeed in growing up side by 
side. It is almost by a lucky accident, that one grows up at all, 
where hundreds of other plants want to do the same. Such a 
forest brings home to us what the struggle for life really means, 
and what it can do. It is the struggle for sunlight and for rain- 
water, and to get them at first hand. One of the results is 
the height of the trees, a result to which, so to speak, they have 
forced each other, till they have developed into tall, slender, 
branchless stems, with an interlaced canopy above. What- 
ever plant cannot grow tall of itself, climbs on to its neighbour's 
shoulders. Even cactus in a forest can climb like ivy, and 
many of them have learned the trick so successfully that they 
have transformed themselves into epiphytes, either remaining 
still upright in form, or in the guise of big, many-tailed pendent 
bunches, and living thus apparently out of harm's reach ; 
their character has become modified, and they have lost their 
dreadful spikes. Such is the forest. Let us now consider its 
animal denizens, of which we have read and dreamed so much 
since our childhood, the fierce beasts of prey, the dangerous 
snakes, the gorgeously-coloured birds and butterflies. Full of 
expectation, and perhaps a little afraid, we fight our way into 
the paradise, feel oppressed with the sweltering heat, and 
relieved when we are out again, all sadly disenchanted because we 
have not seen a single living thing ! The observation of animal 
life is most disappointing to the uninitiated. One may roam 
about in this gloomy forest for hours and hear little, and 
certainly see less. All you can collect, if you know how to look for 
them, are a few toads, small, even diminutive, and very darkly 
coloured, living on the ground, and hiding amongst the roots 
and the mould, as do many worm-shaped lizards and snakes. 
You hear a few birds e.g., those which, like trogons, motmots, 
and pigeons, are habitually noisy callers but you see very 



COLOUR IN THE FOREST 107 

few and catch but glimpses of them, and such mysterious 
sounds as you hear cannot be located. A sudden rustle, scuttle, 
or splash in a pool may have been produced by some mammal, 
the meeting of which is out of the question. 

Where are the two hundred different kinds of mammals, 
birds, reptiles, and amphibians which we know to exist in the 
Mexican tropical forests ? Most of them inhabit the roof- 
garden which is formed by the tree-tops. If by a lucky chance 
we obtain a bird's-eye view from some eminence, we behold a 
different world. A dense green carpet overs trewn with 
thousands of mauve, pink, yellow, or white flowers of some kind 
of bignonia, visited by countless butterflies, which are preyed 
upon by lizards and tree-frogs, these being in their turn sought 
after by tree-snakes. Of bird-life, gorgeous and beautiful in 
colour, there is plenty. Vividly coloured also are many of the 
other creatures frogs, snakes, lizards and butterflies. Colour 
has to be laid on vividly, quiet coloration being out of place. 
This colour-contest was started by the blossoms, red, yellow, 
or white ; self -colours, not variegated, predominate, and stand 
out very effectively against the green. If a creature intends 
to be seen, to display its beauty, it has to use the brightest 
colours, since it is only by contrast that it can hope to attract 
attention. Again, those which do not want to be seen must 
dress in tints as emphatic, and as " saturated " as are the pre- 
vailing tones of the environment. Most of the tree-frogs are 
green, but some are delicate studies in brown, with irregular 
markings to suit the moss and lichen-covered branches upon 
which they rest. Some of these frogs have flash-colours, 
varying from orange to yellow or red, on parts which are quite 
concealed when the creature sits still. He trusts to not being 
discovered, but touch him, and he makes a tremendous jump ; 
there is a flash of yellow in the air, which vanishes in a moment, 
the frog likewise vanishing ; he has caught hold of a leaf with 
some of his finger-disks, vaulted on to it, and there sits demurely, 
indistinguishable from the foliage. The scientific explanation 
is that he has dazzled his pursuer by this sudden and un- 
expected display of colour. We find the same principle in the 
blue and red under- wings of some of our grasshoppers. These 



108 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

colours are not designed for merely aesthetic sexual gratification, 
nor are they warning colours or recognition-marks ; they are 
devices for use in an emergency. 

Nearly all the tree-top snakes are green, and so are many 
parrots, motmots, and other typical forest-birds of the tropics. 
Other parrots, pigeons, toucans, are loudly coloured, but these 
very colours mingle with their bright surroundings to a mar- 
vellous extent. Tropical light can be so fierce and resplendent 
that a whole flock of bright parrots in a tree will simply vanish ; 
in a museum we find it difficult to understand how such con- 
spicuous objects can ever manage to elude discovery. If we 
now continue our investigations below the tree-roof, there are, 
of course, many creatures which live habitually upon the 
branches or stems of the trees. These have more sombre 
tints of brown, and are speckled or barred. Lastly, those 
few animals that live on the ground itself, are nearly all dark 
of colour, whether toads, frogs, lizards, snakes, or birds. It 
would be no good to wear a beautiful dress in a badly-lighted 
place ; or, rather, it is impossible, as such colours could not be 
developed there. Some apparent exceptions, of course, occur, 
mostly among amphibians and snakes, a few of which are 
beautifully coloured with black and red. For instance, there 
are the coral snakes of America, the uropeltid snakes of Ceylon, 
and various Indian and African frogs and toads. All these 
creatures are nocturnal, and spend most of their time under- 
ground. When they do crawl about, they are practically 
invisible, since black and red are the very colours which, 
when combined, mingle in the dark into a neutral tint ; 
black and orange, on the other hand, mutually enhance each 
other. 

Another point concerning the coloration of the forest fauna 
is the pattern. Except when this is more or less uniform, the 
ground colour is broken up by white or yellowish spots, arranged 
in several longitudinal rows. Many snakes and lizards are thus 
marked ; the young of many mammals pass through a stage 
of this kind, notably those of deer, the peccary, the Central 
American tapir, and the Felidce, There are no stripes of light 
in a dense forest ; what sunlight there is, appears in the shape 



CLIMBERS IN THE FOREST 109 

of little round disks like diminutive sun-images, and these are 
let us put it boldly stamped upon the skin. If we follow 
the same kind of dark-skinned, white-spotted lizard out of 
the forest into the savannah or the grassland, its corresponding 
race or species has no spots, but white longitudinal stripes ; 
those which live in districts partaking of both characters, in 
the open, are barred like zebras ; and the species of the same 
genus which live in the desert have a pale ground-colour with 
dark spots. 

Most of the inhabitants of tropical forests lead an arboreal 
life. This is the prevailing feature. There is no hurry, no 
bustling, but they must be able to climb well. Let us consider 
how this necessity has modified the various creatures con- 
cerned. 

The majority of the Anura have acquired arboreal character- 
istics. They have adhesive disks on the fingers and toes ; 
the hind-limbs are long and slender, and well fitted for jumping 
long distances, and for catching hold of a leaf or twig by means 
of the pads. The Mexican tree-frog (Phyllomedusa) , has even 
developed a hand that can be used for grasping, with the 
thumb opposed. Such arboreal Anura are found in all suitable 
forests, and the most interesting point is that these climbers 
by no means all belong to the family of Hylidce, but that nearly 
every one of the main groups of the Anura has produced at least 
some typically arboreal forms, in spite of the considerable 
structural differences which distinguish, for instance, the 
toothless toads, or Bufonidce, which have the two halves of 
their shoulder-girdle movable and overlapping, from iheRanidce, 
or true frogs, which have teeth, and the two halves of the 
shoulder-girdle firmly united. This is so significant that it is 
worth detailing. There are : First, the Hylidce, the family of 
professional tree-frogs as we might call them, since nearly all its 
one hundred and fifty species are arboreal. Although this 
family is almost cosmopolitan it is very unevenly distributed, 
there being none in Africa and Madagascar, only two or three 
in the whole of Asia and Europe, but several dozen in Australia, 
and scores upon scores in America, especially in the tropical 
parts. Secondly, Cystignathidce of numerous kinds, but re- 



110 

stricted to America and Australia ; only those of the big Ameri- 
can forests have adhesive disks. Thirdly, Bufonidce, or toads, 
a cosmopolitan family, mostly slow, short-legged, and living 
on the ground, but in the forests of West Africa, Southern 
India, and Borneo, some have been modified into typically 
arboreal forms. Lastly, Ranidce, or true frogs ; cosmopolitan, 
but essentially inhabitants of the northern hemisphere. Out 
of a total of some two hundred and seventy, scarcely a dozen 
kinds extend into the north-western parts of South America, 
and all those are now typically arboreal. But such " tree-frogs" 
have been developed out of Ranidce, also in Africa, Madagascar, 
India, Malaya, and China, because in those countries there 
are no Hylce, and Ranidce happen to be the only material avail- 
able for counterfeiting them. In this respect the forests have 
succeeded so well that it is, for instance, impossible to dis- 
tinguish certain green tree-frogs of the African genus Rappia 
from a Hyla, unless we cut them open. If they lived side by 
side, which they do not, this close resemblance would be 
extolled as an example of mimicry. In reality, it is a case of 
heterogeneous convergence, brought about by identical en- 
vironmental conditions. One might almost say that tropical, 
moist forests must have tree-frogs, and that these are made out 
of whatever suitable material happens to be available. 

The same remark applies to tree-snakes, which every forest- 
country possesses, and it is immaterial whether the available 
stock of snakes be boas or pythons, harmless colubrines, cobras, 
vipers, or even pit- vipers. In India all these kinds have 
contributed to this class ; in Africa, of poisonous snakes, only 
vipers ; in America only boas and colubrines have done so, 
since there are no vipers, and most of the pit- vipers are turned 
into rattlers, which cannot climb at all. Professional tree- 
snakes, those which do nothing else but live in the trees, in- 
variably have a very long, slender body, with an excessively 
long, whip-like tail. Thus they are able to glide, almost to 
jump, through the foliage, from branch to branch, from tree 
to tree, the long body and tail always finding some support. 
In the most typical tree-snakes, whether in Brazil, Congo, 
India, or Australia, the horny shields of the flat belly are bent 



CLIMBING DEVICES 111 

so as to form a continuous sharp edge all along the sides, so 
that these snakes can glide both straight and along the trees. 
It is, by the way, only the snake of the artist, from the days 
of the Greeks to the days of the Royal Academy, that climbs 
trees in spiral fashion. 

The true whip-snakes are not afraid of falling. If you 
should succeed in treeing one, and with infinite trouble shake 
it down, it will jump from no matter what height, make a 
beautiful spiral of itself, rebound from the earth, and then 
glide away ! 

Another common feature among arboreal animals is upon 
the principle of the parachute, a distension of the skin to break 
the fall. There is a genus of Ranidce, widely distributed from 
Japan to Madagascar, called Rhacophorus, because its many 
species have an enlargement on the edges of the limbs, or the 
sides of the body, in the form of little rags or flaps of skin, and 
a few kinds of flying frogs have the webs between the fingers 
and toes enlarged to an almost absurd extent, so that they 
can descend through the air in a slanting direction. 

Boas and pythons have short and strong prehensile tails, 
and the numerous chameleons of Africa and Madagascar have 
not only a grasping tail, but grasping hands and feet as well. 
This principle of prehensile organs is carried to an extreme 
in various mammals, of which it is sufficient just to mention 
monkeys and lemurs, the pangolin and sloth among edentates, 
the old-world palm-martins among carnivores, the prehensile- 
tailed porcupines and opossums among marsupials. But the 
especial home of prehensile-tailed mammals is in the tropical 
forests of America. There alone live the prehensile-tailed 
monkeys, a group characteristic of and restricted to America. 
Nearly all its marsupials are arboreal opossums, even two 
ant-eaters, Myrmecophaga tetradactylus, and the little " mico de 
noche," or Cycloihurus didactylus, as well as Synetheres 
mexicanus, a climbing porcupine ; Cercoleptes caudivolvulus, 
the kinkajou, with its indiarubber-like tail-tip, is a repre- 
sentative of the carnivores, although it has become an almost 
strict vegetarian. All these mammals occur in the Atlantic 
' ; hot-lands " of Mexico. 



112 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

The little flying dracos, agamid lizards of India and Malaya, 
possess a perfectly folding parachute, with stays furnished 
by the much-lengthened posterior ribs. In Borneo there lives 
a tree-snake which, cobra-fashion, although it is not a cobra, 
spreads out its ribs ; it does this to flatten and broaden the 
body somewhat like a split bamboo, and is said to glide thus, 
in parachute-fashion, from tree to tree. This principle is carried 
to extremes in mammals, mostly in the Malayan and Australian 
forests, examples being Galeopithecus, the flying insectivore, 
flying phalangers among marsupials, and flying squirrels among 
rodents, while far away from this Oriental centre, in West 
African forests, lives another flying rodent, Anomalurus. They 
all possess parachutes formed by the enlarged folds of skin 
between the limbs and the sides of the body. Whilst in 
Malaya the parachute principle is a " fashionable " contriv- 
ance, prehensile tails are there almost absent ; the reverse is 
the case in the American forests, in all of which there does not 
occur a single advance towards the parachute principle. One 
feels inclined to appeal to the genius loci for the explanation ! 

Intensely arboreal life leads to various unexpected 
modifications, and sometimes to limited distribution. Many 
of such mammals scarcely ever descend to the ground, and if, 
like the sloth, they cannot even walk on the ground, their 
chance of spreading is absolutely limited by the continuity 
of the tree-tops. The same applies to lemurs and the 
American monkeys. It may be a laborious journey for a tree- 
frog to descend from his roof -garden to the gloomy basement ; 
moreover, he finds all he needs on the trees themselves. The 
scroll-like receptacles of leaves and flowers, before-mentioned, 
hold water, and some frogs use them as nurseries ; or they glue 
leaves together, fill the space with a foamy lather, and deposit 
their eggs therein, the development of which is so accelerated, 
that the babies are hatched within a few days as tiny frogs, 
having dispensed with gills and swimming tail ; or the nest 
is suspended over a pool, so contrived that the next big rain 
washes the tadpoles into the water ; or, they lay only a few 
large eggs, containing a great amount of yolk, which the male 
glues on to the female's back, a trick common in Africa and on 



IMPRESSIVE LESSONS 113 

the Seychelles. In some Brazilian tree-frogs, to prevent the 
eggs from slipping off, a slight fold of skin is raised along both 
sides of the back. In some other Hylce these folds become 
rather large during the hatching-season, forming a kind of 
hood e.g., in the South American Hyla gceldi. In a few South 
American and Mexican Hylce this hood has become a per- 
manent organ, a pouch upon the back ; Nototrema is such a 
marsupial frog. It may even be a question whether the 
mammalian marsupial does not owe its origin to the arboreal 
life of this early, and still rather primitive, group of mammals. 
The tropical forest teaches two impressive lessons : the 
tremendous, awe-inspiring competition into which plants and 
animals alike are forced in their struggle for life, and the fact 
that the fight is so fierce because the physical conditions 
plenty of warmth, water, and food are so favourable to all. 
Every living thing is modelled by adaptation to the prevailing 
surroundings, coupled with the cumulative inheritance of the 
characters acquired. 



CHAPTER VI. 

SAVANNAHS AND SWAMPS, FROM TETELA TO THE ISTHMUS. 

Mateo Trujillo and his Home Jaguars Birds Nearly killed in our Car 

Vegetation and Animals of the Lagoon of Aguafria It is not advisable to assist 

a wounded Man Railway Oddities The Town of San Juan Evangelista 

Laziness Dermophis mcxicanus. 

Our " Pullman car " (V. C. al P. No. 542) was hitched on 
to a train, and we moved twenty- two miles further south to 
Tetela. Half-way down, at Acatlan, the railway leaves the 
sierra and enters upon savannahs. The tree-covered higher 
ranges remain visible to the west, while to the eastward stretch 
lower trees, at first still forming continuous woods, but soon 
diminishing on the plains into scattered clumps, while still 
further south and east there is open grass-land with clusters of 
palms and other trees, especially near the rivers, for instance, 
the Rio Tonto. This savannah district, with its concomitant 
changes of flora and fauna, is of great interest. 

Tetela is an inland station typical of this line ; it possesses 
a station building of the usual dilapidated wattle-and-daub 
palm-house type, leaning against a more solid structure of wood 
and brick, with the usual drink-shop. The car was left on the 
short shunting- track. Tetela, as such, scarcely exists ; several 
scattered habitations in the neighbourhood make up the entire 
hamlet. 

Ten minutes away stood Mateo's house, and as he was such 
an important person in this expedition in fact, we, hitherto 
inexperienced in Mexican ways, could not have brought it to 
a satisfactory end without him he deserves some remarks. 
Mateo Trujillo was a native of Jalapa, in the State of Vera 



MATEO 115 

Cruz, a Mexicano, with some admixture of Spanish blood ; 
otherwise a typical Indian, with the ugly conical cranium, of 
short and slender build, with a few scattered hairs on his chin 
and upper lip, and forty-eight years of age. Rather well 
educated, able to read, write, and figure fairly well, and with a 
craving for knowledge, ha was born a naturalist a wonderfully 
close observer and lover of Nature. Since his youth he had, 




MATEO TRUJILLO AND FAMILY. 

off and on, been employed by various collectors, who preferred 
enjoying themselves in the towns whilst Mateo scouted for 
them in the country. But this was, at best, a precarious way of 
making a living and supporting a family. He said one day : 
" People in your country seem to think that people in Mexico 
live on tortillas and a real (2|d.) per day. Look at this postcard 
which I have recently received." Some shameless dealer from 
the " Vaterland " had offered him one real per kilogram for Mexican 

i 2 



116 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

landshells snails, mind you as if such things could be picked 
up like sea-shells ! Mateo had tried his hand at many things, 
had been boy to a muleteer, pedlar, assistant to a surveying 
party, a trooper "' guarding the coast " under General Diaz, 
and a traveller and commission agent for the railway. Recently 
he had settled, with his second wife, at Tetela, and we had 
engaged him for two pesos per day, besides his keep. Above 
all he was scrupulously honest, always cheerful and willing ; 
he became very much attached to us, and, above all, he adored 
" la senora." Many a time, when things looked black, he 
worked and worried until he had put them right, and it was a 
lesson to see his methods of enlisting the help, and gaining the 
confidence, of the most reluctant natives. It was a joy with 
such a companion to prowl about, watching bird or beast in 
its haunt, or to sit by the camp-fire exchanging confidences. 
He spoke nothing but Spanish, with a smattering of Aztec, 
and he liked using foreign terms, such as "idioma," " equilibrio," 
" recapitulacion," which he then translated in an aside into the 
vernacular for my benefit, saying : " This is a rare and diffi- 
cult Spanish word you may not yet have come across." Alas, 
that this has all to be written in the past tense ! Poor Mateo ! 
Maria, his wife, kept the house clean and in excellent order, 
and the two little children, a boy and a girl, were trained not 
to cry, and if there is anything, above all, likely to drive one 
out of an Indian's hut, it is the importunate, angry crying of 
their babies. 

A house like Mateo's is not over-furnished. Bamboo lattice- 
work screens off the sleeping apartment, with either a folding 
bedstead or more often a " petate," a plaited mat of rushes or 
grass, laid on the ground. When the woman receives friends, 
or does some sewing, other " petates " are laid down. The 
hearth in these Eastern States is invariably raised to a con- 
venient height above the ground by means of a fixed, table- 
like, wooden structure supporting a thick layer of clay, upon 
which is built a fire. A " soplador," or fan, neatly plaited 
from palm-leaves, a very large, thin, and extremely brittle 
" comalli," or unglazed earthenware pan for roasting the 
tortillas ; a " metlatl," or grinding-block, a " metlapil," or 



WATER AND WELLS 117 

cylindrical grinder, for the Indian corn, and a smaller pounding- 
stone for capsicum chilies, are all the necessaries found in the 
poorest hut. The horses' trappings, beautiful " mantas " 
and " zarapes " attract the eye, but the women's embroidered 
garments are kept out of sight, being hidden in bags which are 
suspended from the rafters, so as to be, like everything else, 
out of reach of the ants, termites, rats, and other vermin. 
The fowls roost where they please ; and during the heat of 
the day the people lie in their hammocks, slung from the beams 
of the verandah. None of these houses have windows, and few 
have proper doors. 

The people suffered much from malaria, and Mateo's servant 
was in a deplorable condition. The stuff which is sold as 
quinine at the haciendas, or factories, is worthless, like all 
the other drugs obtainable here, and shamefully expensive. 
We gave the man, a mere wreck as he was, a staggering dose, 
dissolved in a cup of wine with sugar ; he promptly curled 
himself up in the shade, slept for nearly twenty hours, and 
then came to do us a good turn. He had been appointed 
water-carrier, but we did not like the lukewarm and turbid 
fluid that passed under that name, and whilst he was so ill I 
had found a little well with much cooler and clearer water. 
' You lazy fellow, you got this muck from the brook where 
all the filthy cattle drink." " Yes, my chief, but in the well 
lies a dead 'tlacuache'( an opossum), drowned there as many mice 
have been before it. Nunca busce V. agua de un pozo " 
(Never take water from a well) ! Mateo was more philosophical. 
" Sr. Don Juan, I have repeatedly warned you that all water 
is bad except that of the sierras ; ah, what water we had at 
El Pico, at La Barbara ! " He meant well, but did not go so 
far as the well-known Hungarian, who said : " Water is bad 
enough when its gets into one's boots ; imagine what it must 
feel like in the stomach ! " 

The fauna and flora of Tetela, at an elevation of about 
1,000 feet, are both thoroughly tropical, but of the drier 
savannah-like types. The rains are said to be very heavy, but 
during our visit, in the month of August, a few consecutive 
rainless days sufficed for the tributaries of the Rio Tonto to 



118 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

empty themselves ; they were then three-quarters dry, a mere 
succession of very deep pools connected by long and shallow 
rapids ; only their banks and the hollows were densely wooded. 
A conspicuous landmark was a ceiba tree, or Bombax, a veritable 
giant, with a big hollow which reached perhaps for forty feet 
up the interior of the smooth, branchless trunk, before this 
latter began to spread out its great limbs. It had been set on 
fire many years ago, at which time many bats were reported 
to have issued from it. We therefore made a big bonfire of 
dry palm-leaves, which soon blazed and roared up the funnel, 
and then made a smoke by burning mould and grass, but the 
result was disappointing, only a few bats being caught ; they 
were, however, vampires, the real bloodsucking Desmodus. 
Several armadilloes were caught with dogs, the natives tracking 
them to their burrows, whence they were easily dug out. 

During the first night all the dogs in the neighbourhood 
were barking, and the cattle were lowing uneasily in a peculiar 
way, just because a jaguar was on the prowl, sometimes near 
enough to the car for us to hear the coughing, snorting, sniffing 
sound that he made. Information about the habits of these 
beasts was contradictory and puzzling. At Motzorongo a 
jaguar was slain by natives while in the act of tearing down 
a cow, in full view of the house and in broad daylight. Here 
at Tetela it was : " Oh, no, he never takes cattle, nor does he 
attack people, as he does not live here, but in the forest, on the 
slopes of the distant mountains ; he is quite harmless, since 
there he has plenty of game in the shape of staers." " Why, 
then, does he ever come here ? " " He always comes to the 
farms during the night, hoping to catch a dog. which he prefers 
to anything else. He also takes pigs." " Does he ever break 
into your houses ? " " Never, unless pigs, dogs, or fowls are 
inside." But as these are allowed to sleep in most houses 
" because of the jaguar," the information works back to the 
starting-point as usual. It is curious that the jaguar is so fond 
of dogs, just as the leopard is said to be in Africa and India; 
but leopards, panthers, and jaguars are really the same animal, 
the most successful of tropical cats, and hence cosmopolitan, 
each of the three great continents having its own form, the 



BABY IGUANAS 119 

Indian panther and the African leopard distinguished from 
each other by fancy alone, the American jaguar from these by 
the absence of a central spot in its " rosettes." 

A few miles south of Tetela was a large cattle ranch owned 
by a strongly-built, tall, white-haired and venerable-looking 
negro, with stately manners, like those of his " official " wife, 
a wizened, but rather awe-inspiring, old lady. We visited him 
to ask permission to search his lagoon. 

The old gentleman was reputed to be very wealthy, both 
in cattle and children ; of the latter alone he had thirty- three, 
boys and girls, the minority, of course, being children of the 
wife. This was the secret of the patriarch's success, his many 
children being employed as farm- workers, and in absolute 
subordination to him. The whole district goes in for much 
breeding of cattle and horses, but the difficulty was the then 
still unreliable condition of the railway though it was built 
for the very purpose of conveying cattle to Vera Cruz, for 
shipment to New Orleans. The ranchman had much to com- 
plain about. 

One of the elder of the many sons, and a younger brother 
of the patriarch, both dark-brown in colour instead of black, 
took us to some of the pools, where they stripped and waded 
up to their necks in the water, " feeling for crocodiles and 
tortoises " with little success. But we saw other creatures. 
Big iguanas plumped into the water with a loud splash ; 
" pasarios," or basilisk lizards, scuttled across, a graceful 
snake-bird took a header from its favourite perch, and there 
were baby iguanas which astonished me very much, emerald- 
green little beauties, not yet five inches long, even if we include 
their long tail ; they were sitting in the high grass and reeds, 
whence at the first alarm they dived into the water, and went 
to the bottom in a slanting direction, propelled only by their 
wriggling tail, their limbs being held back just like those of 
newts. The adults are arboreal 'and aquatic. On another 
occasion in the same neighbourhood, where guava trees over- 
hung the then dry river-bed, the ground was thickly splashed 
with the dung of these great lizards, which had been browsing 
upon their favourite food, the leaves of the guava- tree, the 



120 



THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 



fruit of which yields the famous jelly. Our new friend, 
although he had really exerted himself, gracefully refused any 
reward, intimating that it would be more appropriate for us 
to have a smoke and a talk. Assuredly, he was one of Nature's 
gentlemen ; after having seen us half-way home, he invited us 
" to breakfast with the family " for the morrow, when his 
" papa would be very pleased " to see us. 




THE TETELA RIVER. 

In the morning and evening numbers of long-tailed, prettily- 
coloured cuckoos, or " piaya," became extremely noisy. They 
were a most cheerful and playful lot, although their cries, 
something like " Pia-pia-piayaah," often sounded like those of 
someone in dire distress. Parrots were mainly represented 
by the yellow-headed Chrysotis, which kept fairly quiet, as did 
some of the solitary kingfishers, Ceryle americana, and the 
large C. torquata, both of which sat, as usual, on a barren 
branch above the river, or hovered in the air. Ever-present in 



INTERESTING BIRDS 121 

grassy parts of the Mexican " hot-lands " are the " garra- 
pateros " (Crotophaga sulcirostris, of the cuckoo tribe), funny- 
looking birds, entirely of a dull, coal-black colour from the high, 
strongly compressed bill to the feet. They are odd in various 
respects. The long, thin-looking tail is composed of but eight 
quills, the smallest number in any known bird ; they build a 
big nest in company, several females combining to fill it with 
their eggs, which have blue shells, covered, however, with a 
white chalky matter. The latter often gets partially scratched 
off by their feet during the period of incubation, which also 
seems to be conducted upon queer principles. The natives said 
that several birds sit at the same time, while others perch upon the 
margin of the nest, waiting for their turn. It is usually stated 
that these birds pick the ticks off the cattle. This may be the 
case ; our own experience is that they often rest upon the backs 
of cattle, but we never saw any picking done. When the cattle 
were grazing, one or more of these " savannah blackbirds " 
usually stood a yard or two in front, to pounce upon the insects, 
mostly grasshoppers, which the cattle happened to stir up. 
They were most in evidence during the broiling heat of the day, 
which they seemed to feel greatly in their black dress, to judge 
from their panting, and the opening of their beaks as they sat 
upon the fences. Not at all shy, they rather seemed to take 
an interest in the passer-by, flitting from bush to bush along 
his track, now and then mewing like a kitten, or making a 
harsher double-note when alarmed. Little hawks of various 
kinds were surprisingly confiding, and far less wary than the 
black " tilcampo " lizards (Ctenosaura acanthinura) , which 
basked upon hollow branches, but, when they saw us approach, 
although still thirty yards off, crept at once into their 
holes, forgetting, as usual, to withdraw half of the long, 
serrated tail. 

Not far from Tetela, not more than half-an-hour in a bee-line 
from the station, is a small pyramid, about twenty feet high. 
It is a terraced structure, with steps leading to the top, but 
densely overgrown with trees, shrubs, and a tangle of weeds. 
This pyramid is still unexplored and " unknown " ; but the 
men who built the railroad had other things in view, and the 



122 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

natives have learned from experience that letting the 
authorities know of such monuments brings trouble in the shape 
of much ill-paid labour, besides confiscation of objects 
found, and beyond such reasons there is always some super- 
stition lurking in the Indian's mind. An active " jefe 
politico," or commissioner of the county, now and then annexes 
a " find," and sometimes sends it to the State or the National 
Museum, unless it is smuggled out of the country ; but the 
natives get neither credit nor reward, since, according to law, 
" prehistoric objects " belong to the Government, and 
" idolatry " is forbidden. 

Our next move was fifty-eight miles further south, to Agua- 
fria, a mere community of scattered habitations. The whole 
Trujillo family was invited, as Maria had relations in that place, 
and cherished the idea of paying them a surprise visit. 
Therefore my wife and I had the car to ourselves, and this was 
literally shunted into the bush, away from both huts and 
station. The first night we went within a hair's-breadth of 
being finished off. As we lay sweltering under the mosquito 
curtains, we heard, in the middle of the night, the puffing of an 
engine, and before we were quite awake there was a terrific 
bang, and camp beds shot against the end of the car, and tins, 
bottles, and canned preserves, which had been neatly arranged 
on the shelves, flew about like canister shot. The engine of 
a belated goods train had charged into the car ! I shouted in 
the dark, and tried to climb out by the open door, but the 
engine came on again, and I had just time to fling myself on 
to the bed, and hold tight, when the scene was repeated, 
with variations. A native with a lantern who went past, 
said they were " only shunting " ; one more shunt and all 
would be right. " Shunt " they did, and I am very sorry that 
I did not hit the brute whose fault it was ; but at least my well- 
meant attempt drew the attention of the driver, who came 
along with another lantern to search beneath the car for the 
person " supposed to be run over." He was beside himself, 
poor man, when he understood what had happened ; his 
revolver was out in a twinkling, and he blazed at the shunter, 
but the fellow escaped, and was never seen again. He had only 



AN UNPLEASANT EXPERIENCE 123 

to present himself at another station to be taken on again, 
with the loss of a few days' wages. 

Of course, the station-master had given no warning of the 
existence of this " private car " on the side track, but the 
knowledge of it soon spread all along the line. To make really 
sure, we made friends with another man who knew how to 
prevent any repetition of such attacks ; every night he laid two 
sleepers across the side track, one above and another below us, 
and both a good way off the car. " That," he said, " would 
prevent any engine from coming too near ! " The interior 
of the car was left in a state of heartrending confusion. 
Every box, including the barrel with the boas, had toppled 
over, the water-buckets were upset, curtains torn, and we 
thought it better to leave further inspection until the 
morning, when Mateo came and gazed at the wreckage. 

It generally rained, with heavy thunder, during part of the 
night, and the early morning hours were delightful when the 
sun lighted up the scene, the refreshed vegetation, still dripping 
with moisture, and almost visibly unfolding new leaves and 
flowers in its tropical exuberance. Parrots, always in couples, 
chattering and never forgetting to answer each other, crossed 
the sky overhead, pair after pair going in the same direction, 
and returning an hour before sunset in the same manner to 
the hills. Toucans alighted on a tree close to the car, and 
hopped about in their own amusing way, these almost voiceless 
birds communicating whatever they had to say by means of 
quaint movements of their huge, but light, beaks. Large 
Cnemidophorus lizards went seeking about on the ground ; 
trogons cooed, and motmots uttered their " hoo-too-hoo-too " 
in the denser parts of the jungle. Our toucan-tree, a large- 
limbed oak of some kind, was specially favoured by our visitors. 
Luxuriant phyllodendrons and vanilla plants had found their 
way up the bigger branches, and several kinds of bright orchids 
grew in clusters, together with a fine specimen of the most 
extraordinary-looking kind of bromelia (Mchmea laxiftora), 
while a climbing Cereus unfolded its white, yellow-centred, 
blossoms at night. We could even watch the very process : 
how those spots of white gradually appeared and grew large 



124 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

in the dark. They looked lovely amongst the verdure at 
sunrise, but a few hours later they visibly flagged and were 
soon no more. 

Until 7 a.m. life felt vigorous and full of promise, and a great 
programme was made for the day. An hour later the shade 
felt agreeable ; by 9 a.m. the sun had become unpleasant, 
and soon the last trace of the morning freshness had been 
overpowered by the heat of the day, and life appeared to be 
in a state of suspense. Things became lively and noisy 
again in the late afternoon ; but the world, somehow or other, 
had an aged, tired look, and the rapid closing in of darkness 
was only welcome as bringing relief from the merciless sun. 
The evening hour was spoiled by the insect pests which, one 
after another, made their appearance ; not all at once, but 
first one kind and then another giving ample employment to 
the victim ; " zancudos," or big flies, mosquitoes of all 
varieties, " chaquistles," and the microscopic flies called 
" jejen," the last-named being the worst of all. They con- 
siderably added to the troubles of the night, which, instead of 
being a time of rest, proved to be one of exhaustion. 

In this low-lying district, about one hundred feet only 
above sea-level, and consisting of a mixture of forest and 
swamps, with a sluggish river, creeks, and lagoons, the air was 
as saturated with moisture as that of an orchid-house. Clothes, 
already wet with perspiration, remained damp, and the limp 
mosquito curtains shut out every breath of air, which sent the 
pattering gusts of rain into the car through the sliding doors, 
which, of course, were kept wide open. Our increasing 
menagerie, so quiet in the day-time, became restless. The 
armadilloes and tortoises scraped and scratched, the boas 
tried with all their combined strength to lift the lid, and Mateo, 
who ought to have been well seasoned, tossed about with fever 
in his body. The mosquitoes were of the dangerous kind ; 
with blood-swollen abdomen and long legs stretched out 
behind them as they were found in the morning sitting on the 
walls of the car an uncomfortable warning that the fever- 
devils were about. Yet we escaped ; a small dose of quinine 
dissolved in a cupful of white wine or lemon juice, with enough 



CROCODILE HUNTING 125 

sugar to hide the bitterness, and taken in the early morning, 
an hour before breakfast, is a drink fit for the gods, and is 
death to the fever germs ; it enables an otherwise healthy 
constitution to grapple with the fiend before he can assert 
himself. 

The site of the village of Aguafria had been selected on 
strictly scientific principles, so as to secure the maximum 
amount of fever for the inhabitants ! The palm and reed- 
built houses were scattered around the margin of a large pond 
teeming with insect life, and shallow surface-wells had been 
sunk in the sodden ground. A log, half floating in the pond, 
was the favourite basking-place of the village crocodile. Plenty 
of smaller specimens lived in the ditches along the railway 
embankments. When pursued, they made for the deeper parts 
that were free from weeds, stirred up the yellow water, and hid 
in the mud at the bottom, where they lay close ; the only way 
of finding them was for the men to wade in, feeling for them 
with their feet, and prodding at random with their twelve-foot 
bamboo sticks pointed with ten-inch iron spikes their usual 
" fishing-rods." During the night the crocodiles roamed 
about in the forest, in search of new pools when their old ones 
had either been fished out or threatened to dry up. The 
railroad proved a veritable trap to them, as the bleaching bones 
of slain specimens showed. 

The Rio de Aguafria, or " cold river," owes its name to 
its source, a deep hole, out of which the river, as if ready-made, 
wells from beneath the overlying limestone. It soon becomes 
a mere series of lagoons and creeks, with steep, muddy banks, 
amongst brushwood and forest. 

Some navvies were mending a small bridge on the railway ; 
instead of replacing the broken crossbeams, they had built 
a crib, and as this sank the gap was filled up with boards taken 
from a wooden box, and with the stem of a palm-frond ! This 
sample of engineering skill was, of course, not visible to the 
inspecting party who, on the following day, rolled merrily over 
it in their observation car, but it set us musing as we embarked 
beneath that bridge in a dug-out canoe. The thing was 
horribly unsteady. My wife was perched in the bows, whilst I 



126 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

was kneeling on the muddy bottom in the stern, a position which 
drew from the fisherman the remark that I was in the proper 
position for doing penance. To shoot from such a rickety craft 
was to court disaster ; one could not even laugh in it, and there 
was soon so much to see, more than enough, indeed, to excite 
us. From the overhanging boughs great iguanas fell with a 




THE FIRST IGUANA. 

splash, some of them at least five feet long, and heavy enough 
to upset us if they had fallen into the canoe. Others crept 
stealthily through the brushwood, and, on reaching the water's 
edge, looked round with their large, quiet eyes before they slid 
into the shallow water, and walked along the bottom. 

The captain refused to punt us into the large lagoon ahead, 
for fear of our being upset by some frightened crocodile. 
There certainly were both crocodiles and alligators, very big 



A LAGOON 127 

skulls of either sort lying about, the living monsters themselves 
being far too wary to do more than show their heads and 
emit grunts. We therefore landed, to flounder across a 
flat of about two miles in extent, which had been recently 
inundated to a depth of five feet, as was indicated by the 
masses of dead weeds, and the grey, dried-up mud on the shrubs. 
These latter were low but thick, and grew in clusters, consisting 
apparently of some kind of " cuautecomatl," or Pseudosmod- 
ingium, whose foxglove-like, white blooms, proceeded from the 
very branches, and exhaled a sweet but sickly smell ; the 
fruit resembled green apples, and the bark was beset with spikes. 
Up to about the height of a man, the trees and shrubs all looked 
like dead wood, since they were coated over with mud, and the 
ground was one brown mass of slime, with here and there a 
pool of hot, brown water, and wherever such a pool was over- 
hung by shrubs, iguanas plunged in or rustled through the 
tangled roots. The young, which retain their vivid green 
coloration until they reach a length of fifteen inches or so, 
alone were less timid, and allowed us to approach within three 
yards distance, keeping their large black eyes wide open. 
If we came yet nearer, they ran through the brushwood as to 
the manner born. 

At last appeared the lagoon, now only a few hundred yards 
across, though several miles long ; one side passing gradually 
into sticky, hot mud, relieved by patches of grass and reeds, the 
other side forming a picture of tropical forest in all its glory. 
The slightly-rising ground was covered with a dense jungle of 
oak, palms, and many other kinds of trees, right down to the 
water's edge, and all the luxuriant verdure turned as it grew 
towards the open space, thus presenting a rare and, as it were, 
a bird's-eye view of the outside of the branch-canopy with all 
its blooms. Majestic, though decaying, trees were the resting- 
places of many birds, amongst which both large and small 
egrets, in resplendent white, shone out conspicuously from the 
green background. There were also grey herons, little dark 
herons, greenish-coloured bittern, and pink spoonbills, or 
rather white spoonbills with a tinge of pink, and with carmine- 
red upon their shoulders. White, curve-billed wood-ibises, 



128 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

with black wings and red eye-wattles, gyrated and croaked 
overhead, and in the midst of all this lovely bird-life, falcons 
perched stolidly on the same palm-fronds as the little egrets. 
The sight was lovely, one, indeed, not easily forgotten, and the 
reverse of the medal was memorable for different reasons : 
for the suffocating and glaring heat of the noonday sun caused 
the fermenting mud and vegetable rubbish to ooze and rise in 
evil-smelling bubbles. 

These lagoons must be teeming with fish. How can they 
otherwise produce and support such numbers of huge crocodiles 
and alligators ? No doubt many a stag and tapir, of both of 
which the spoors were plentiful, was dragged into the water 
by these reptiles as they lurked at the drinking-places ; yet 
they can scarcely form the staple food supply. It was 
aggravating to hear the fisherman talk from Tetela to the 
Isthmus about the " huge, pale, water- tortoises " called 
" galapago," or " tortuga blanca," which is the usual name 
of the vegetarian tortoise Dermatemys maivi, but the size of 
this creature is not known to exceed a shell-length of ten 
inches. We were rather unlucky with our tortoises ; plenty 
were visible, even in the ditches near Aguafria, but somehow 
or other they managed to escape, with the exception of some 
slow-paced Nicoria, which lived in shrubberies, and Cinosternum 
leucostomum, which, whether on land or in water, shut them- 
selves up and appeared like waterworn stones. Snakes, mostly 
arboreal, were beyond reach, except the pretty green and 
yellow mottled Drymobius margaritiferus, perhaps the com- 
monest kind in the hot countries on the Atlantic seaboard. 

" Ameiva " lizards and Cnemidophorus guttatus being, as 
forest dwellers, spotted and sombre of colour instead of sharply 
striped, were abundant. Of amphibians it was interesting to 
notice down here the little Hylodes rhodopis, the same kind 
which flourished on Citlaltepetl ; and the absurd-looking 
Rhinophryne dorsalis, here called " poche." This toad, con- 
fined to hot countries on the Atlantic, is ugly in shape, its 
narrow snout protruding, while its short legs can be drawn up 
into its flabby, oval-shaped body, the loose, baggy skin being 
rolled back in the process. This harmless creature is dark 



BOYS AS COLLECTORS 129 

brown, with a yellow or orange stripe along the spine, and 
smaller spots and patches ; being of retiring and nocturnal 
habits, it excavates a small hollow in moist clay under a trunk, 
and it lives mainly on termites and. similar small fry, which it 
licks up with its long tongue. 

The boys of the neighbourhood were bright- witted, and 
soon grasped the situation. Small change being scarce in 
this shopless neighbourhood, they formed a syndicate of eight, 
elected a spokesman, and appointed me treasurer and keeper 
of accounts, after having ascertained the current value of the 
various animals. At first this was no easy matter. " Quanto 
pagara por un poche, zumbichi, cachumbo ? " This question, 
" How much will you pay ? " could not be answered, until 
they actually brought me their toads and lizards, and thus 
taught me the native names of the Rhinophryne, Ameiva, and 
Cnemidophorus. But they were the most reasonable little 
fellows, expecting more only for what was rare and little for 
" un de los corrientes," one of the current things. They caught 
most of the lizards by shooting them with bows and arrows 
with a knob of indiarubber at the tip of the arrow, so as scarcely 
to stun and not to injure them. When they came to the car 
towards sunset, the spokesman first pointed out that so-and-so 
did not belong to the combine, and would have to be dealt 
with separately. Then followed the valuing, counting, and 
apportioning of the pay, and the result was most satisfactory, 
as not only did these boys continue to trade, but several men 
wished to enlist, amongst them a " cazador," or hunter. Thus 
trade became quite brisk, and Mateo got his hands full with 
preparing these specimens, in addition to the small animals 
that he himself trapped. 

These boys brought me armadilloes, the " nasua," or 
" tejon pisotl," the " tejon solitario " (Procyon lotor), black 
and red squirrels (Sciurus aureogaster) , several kinds of 
" tlacuaches," or opossums, the four-toed antbear (Myrmeco- 
phaya tetradactylus) , here called " brazo fuerte," or " strong- 
arm," which lived in the palm-trees, curled up in the dry 
clusters of the fronds, securing itself with a turn of its pre- 
hensile tail around a stalk, and further grappled to the spot 



130 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

by its claws. These, like its arms, are powerful, and the 
animal uses them for opening up the nests of the arboreal 
termites, which are as hard as stones, whence he is also 
called " oso colmenero," or " bee-hive bear." Such and similar 
animals were considered of little value, whereas a large 
" perro de agua," or water-dog i.e., otter (Lutra felina) 
cost as much as four pesos, although it was not obvious why 
they should so much esteem its fur in that sweltering 
country. All we could learn was that the long hairs are 
laboriously plucked out, leaving only the soft under-fur. 

As usual, there were other creatures which one longed for 
and could not get. For instance, instead of the common long- 
tailed deer (Cariacus toltecus], which carries three prongs, we 
wanted the little black-faced brocket (Coassus rufinus), which 
grows primitive antlers up to, but not beyond, the pricket 
stage. This diminutive deer is essentially a forest-dweller, 
and is not often seen, whilst the other deer is plentiful in the 
lowlands as well. These deer assemble during the periodical 
inundations on the slightly higher, isolated knolls near the 
coast, for instance, near Alvarado, where they are slaughtered 
by the hunters without mercy, the skins being paid for at the 
rate of twenty-five to fifty centavos, for shipment in quantities, 
with great profit, to New York, where they are turned into the 
finest doe-skin leather. 

t Above all, we longed for a tapir, called " danta " in Spanish, 
but also " anta," whence has arisen the term " ante-burro," 
further corrupted to " anti-burro," or " opposition ass," 
whilst " ante-burro " might, by popular etymology, be ex- 
plained as a " previous " or " early " donkey, which would 
make ridiculously good sense, since tapirs are zoologically 
generalised three-toed equines which have stuck in the mud. 
A few " ante-burros " are generally to be seen in that 
abomination of a " zoological garden " at Chapultepec. On 
enquiring whence they come, the invariable answer is " Oaxaca, 
del monte." But " monte " does not mean " moun- 
tain " ; it is Spanish for " low forest." Hence has arisen the 
notion that this kind of tapir is an inhabitant of the 
mountains, and as it so happens that in Peru there lives a 



A STATION MASTER 131 

Tapirus andinus, this, its Mexican relative, has been pro- 
moted to the high sierras of Oaxaca. In reality, he does 
not live on the mountains, but only in the tierra caliente, in 
the tropical lowlands. At Aguafria the tapir was plentiful, 
to judge from the spoor, but it was hopeless to get at him in 
the swampy forest ; the time to hunt him was said to be the 
dry season, when these semi-aquatic creatures collect at the 
permanent lagoons, instead of roaming far through the 
forest. 

To make our presence, or rather, that of our car, known 
to the engine-drivers, we kept a look-out for the occasional 
arrival of the trains. The station-master was a good-humoured, 
but utterly lazy and incompetent person, who spent most of 
his time sleeping in his shanty. Theoretically, he was in charge 
of the " post office," which consisted of two cigar-boxes, one 
for delivery, the other for such letters and memoranda as the 
conductors might deposit. Unstamped letters he refused to 
receive, whereas he relieved of their stamps those that had 
any, in which act, however, he only conformed with general 
custom. I was made free of his office, to rummage for possible 
letters, whilst he was lying on his back, and no wonder letters 
get lost in those out-of-the-way places. We only once fell out 
seriously, when he would not send a telegraphic message to 
Cordoba, and I threatened to operate myself. In spite of 
groans and curses he was compelled to keep on repeating it, 
until at length the man at the other end became angry, and we 
got a forcibly expressed, but satisfactory, answer. The point 
in question was to make sure that an eventual notice to move 
our car should be obeyed. We had not yet established intimate 
relations with the various train officials, but this came about 
in a most unexpected manner on the following day. 

I had just walked up to the station, to which I was 
attracted by the sight of a little crowd. The object of interest 
was a horribly-mutilated " peon," or workman, with a crushed 
foot, and the whole of the skin of his hand torn off, and hanging 
in flaps from his fingers. How, and when, and where this had 
happened, I know not ; on the contrary, I was repeatedly asked 
this question by every official. Possibly the man had been 

K2 



132 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

crushed by one of the stacks of firewood. The engineer readily 
promised to keep the train whilst I fetched our emergency 
medicine-case. If I enlarge upon what followed, and put myself 
in the centre of the stage, it is not with the intention of showing 
myself off to advantage, but of throwing a lurid light upon the 
conditions which prevailed. The wounded man kicked, yelled, 
and bit during the process of dressing his wounds, and not a 
man lent a hand, although the office, and the entrance to it, 
was choked with sightseers ; only the station-master's wife 
brought a basin of water. When this business was finished, 
everybody fled ; most of them jumped into the train and 
banged the doors. I myself had to carry the man round to the 
other side of the train. One woman, an old negress, helped 
me in, and we deposited the patient upon one of the long, 
central benches ; this was vacated as if by magic, men, women, 
and children craning their necks over from the other side to 
look at the patient. Outside, in front of the engine, the 
policeman, armed with a cavalry sabre and a revolver, stood 
and smoked ; one of these fellows rides in every train. I 
charged him to take the patient to the Cordoba Hospital, 
and to see that he got some refreshment during the long journey. 
The only reply was : " Has he got any money ? " The con- 
ductor was nowhere to be seen, but the American driver said 
he would see after the case at Cordoba, and we parted, he to 
make up for the long delay, and I to go to our camp, not in 
the best of tempers. Mateo joined me with beaming smiles, 
and my anger vented itself upon him. " What, you here . . ? " 
" Yes, sir, I stood in the door, but I saw it all, and you did 
grandly ; yet it would have been wiser to leave that man 
alone, because it is not known how he came by his dreadful 
injuries. Que disgracia ! " Little by little I learned that I 
had committed a rash act. According to Mexican law, the first 
person who is found with, near or touching a wounded man 
or dead body, can be arrested, and he generally is arrested, if 
for no other reason than that he might be a possible eye-witness. 
The result is that the victim of an accident, or of a foul deed, 
is shunned, and in a street the people run away to a safe 
distance. That policeman could have carried me off, as he 



ACCIDENTS 133 

found me bending over the wounded man, when the train 
arrived at the station. 

However, no ill, but good, resulted ; the engineer had spread 
and magnified my name along the line, and when, a few days 
later, we moved on to Perez, I was pointed out as " the man 
who cut off the peon's arm, who threatened the policeman, and 
who likes camping in the most God-forsaken swamps." 

Nearly all the engine-drivers and conductors of the Mexican 
railways are Americans or Canadians. The reasons are obvious 
enough. Experience has shown that when a small accident 
happens and these are frequent the Mexican would wire 
to his nearest headquarters and wait for instructions, whereas 
the white man would take his screw-jack, and com- 
mandeer help, and at least try to settle the matter himself. 
It is not so much a question of laziness, as want of initiative, 
and the shunning of responsibility. There are exceptions, 
but it is not the best-class of American who goes to Mexico, 
and the further he drifts from the base, the less satisfactory 
is his previous record likely to be, and many of those who have 
slipped off the plateau, and have got stuck in the southern 
" hot country," are a sorry lot. 

Still, after getting to know them, I have received much help 
and many acts of courtesy from both engineers and conductors. 
One of them provided the only fresh meat then available, as 
he had run over and killed a bullock on the line. On such 
lucky occasions the natives swoop down upon the carcase like 
vultures, divide it, and nothing is left to bear witness except 
the horns and hoofs, which in this case, fell to the engine's 
share. " Where does the owner come in ? " " That's just it : 
if he does come in time he claims his beast, and probably 
claims damages, too ; but if he doesn't well, that simplifies 
matters, as he can't prove the kill." This running over of cattle 
and donkeys mules and horses get out of the way is a fruitful 
source of litigation, and still more frequently of " accidents " 
to the trains, for the dissatisfied owner bears a grudge to the 
company, and a little accident, a " desgracia," is soon arranged. 
It may be a false report, but I heard of the manager of one 
railway who preferred travelling by the opposition line rather 



134 



THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 



than by his own, since he had received a warning that his 
uncompromising attitude in settling " run-over " claims had 
marked him as a candidate for an accident. 

We had to leave Aguafria owing to funds running low ; 
so many things had been bought, and so many more were 
offered daily, that the currency threatened to give out long 
before Tehuantepec. 

Perez, on the left-hand bank of the Tezechoacan, a big 




JU ANITA. 

river, did not prove an inviting place, although it is a regular 
station, with a proper house for the railway officials, and is 
also the terminus for the little steamers which ply to Alvarado. 
There were, however, too many mosquitoes and fever-stricken 
people. Thence the railway was in splendid condition, and 
the train flew across the level or slightly undulating savannah 
a rich grazing country until the few scattered huts were reached, 
which represent Juanita station. Intending passengers for 
the Isthmus railway could travel further yet, to the junction 
at Santa Lucrecia, but there was a gap of an uncertain number 



A TALE OF BEER 135 

of miles of unfinished railroad, in which we should surely have 
stuck with our baggage. The alternative was to go from the 
little Juanita, across open country, to the big Juan Evangelista, 
and then by a branch of the Isthmus line to Juile Junction. 
For the present we decided to await events, and have a day's 
look round in the pretty neighbourhood, which consisted 
partly of sandy and pebbly ground, but also had very. fertile, 
green meadows unmistakable dunes and old seashores 
covered here and there with dense clusters of mimosa and spiky 
"cuautecomate" trees, with climbing cactus and many orchids. 

So far, the fresher and drier air was an agreeable change 
from the stuffiness of the swampy forests ; but all day long there 
was absolutely nothing to be bought at Juanita, not even 
tortillas, and nothing to drink until, at night, Mateo, having 
made a last attempt, came back radiant with a heap of crisp 
tortillas, several bottles of beer, and, oh, joy ! two pieces of ice, 
balanced on the rim of his sombrero. There was a mystery 
about the bottles, which had to be returned the same night, 
when done with. Mateo had much of the wisdom of the ser- 
pent. " Let us see whether this beer is good ; to-morrow they 
will be very busy at the station." The man in charge was a 
negro of business-like intelligence, and with feelings of 
responsibility. He had only arrived on the previous day, 
his predecessor having decamped, leaving the station to look 
after itself : he had sufficient reason for thus vanishing. Two 
boxes with beer had arrived, consigned to a farmer in the 
neighbourhood. The station-master had calmly sold it " in 
retail," stipulating that the empty bottles with the corks should 
be returned to him. These he put back into the boxes, and 
forwarded the invoice to the consignee, who had sent for his 
goods. Only one box was delivered, the other " had not yet 
come in." The farmer, discovering that his much-looked-for 
bottles were all empty, rode up to the station and found the 
other box in the office, minus the bottles. Everybody was 
sorry for the station-master, duly returned any empty bottles 
they might have, and felt grateful to him for the treat. 

The natives were a lawless lot, and made attempts to break 
into our car, even in the daytime. Several skins and heads had 



136 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

been put on the top to dry, and to get rid of the unpleasant 
smell ; in the dead of night the patter of naked feet on the 
zinc roof awoke us. Whilst I kicked at an arm which was 
reaching in by one of the doors, Mateo climbed out through the 
other and up by the hoops outside, in order to chase the two 
fellows on the top, flourishing his revolver (which I had carefully 
filled long ago with empty cartridges), and saying in his 
beautiful idiom : "If you up yourself again, I down you with 
lead." From Cordoba southwards the officials and many local 
passengers carried revolvers. From Perez to San Juan, and 
on the Isthmus line, every other man had one, mostly for 
swagger, though partly from mutual distrust. The genuine 
natives were quite sufficiently armed with their " machetes." 
Suspicious, and easily taking, and resenting, offence, these 
strangely-minded people, themselves being inveterate liars, 
never believe what you say, and yet are most easy to bluff. 
I have been hustled once or twice when quite alone and 
unarmed, buying provisions rather late after sunset, and then 
I have calmly told the fellows to carry my load, and this 
baffled them so much that they cheerfully consented. 
Except for the larger towns, mines, and railways in con- 
struction, where they come much in contact with the white 
man, and most of the latter foreigners whom they have 
learned to distrust, the natives are perfectly harmless and 
possessed of good manners. 

A stage-coach conveyed us and the baggage from the little 
Juanita to the big San Juan Evangelista, for an exorbitant 
sum. It was a lovely drive of a few hours through park-like 
grassland, with little brooks and forest fringing the big San 
Juan river. The ferrying was done by an enormous dug-out, 
each person and big bundle paying one real, while the horses 
were whipped into the river and swam across. The town on 
the opposite side looked lovely ; it lost much on nearer 
acquaintance. It had several inns, one run by Carmelita, an 
old woman who cooked good food, but the room, or rather 
sleeping accommodation, was horrid. Several foreign agents 
and our friend the stage-driver, boarded and lodged there, 
and, occupying the only available rooms, did not add to our 



SAN JUAN EVANGELISTA 



137 



happiness. They were so inquisitive, and probed us with 
questions about indiarubber, cattle, enamelled ironware, 
logwood, and many other trades, all of which they said offered 
no chance. When they heard that our branch of trade was 
big snakes, to set up a menagerie, they saw to it that most of 
our baggage was stored in the backyard, although Mateo tried 
to convince them that we were only beginners. 

The town, founded in early times by the Spaniards, is well 
laid out, with wide streets, a very large square, and another 




SAN JUAN EVANGBLISTA. 

round the double-towered church ; green turf covered the 
hard, sandy soil, and everything looked airy and fairly clean. 
Most of the low houses around and near the square are built 
of brick, further out the streets lose themselves in the usual 
labyrinth of gardens, cactus fences, and scattered palm- 
thatched huts. The people, who are rather good-looking, 
with a strong admixture of negro blood, have a bad, quarrelsome 
reputation. Dark-skinned women walked about in flowing 
garments of many colours, with gardenias and other bright 
and strongly-scented flowers in their somewhat short and 
slightly curly hair. As usual, the pure negroes have been 
completely absorbed. The talk of the dangerous disposition 
of the inhabitants seemed mere fancy at all events, on the 



138 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

two nights we spent in their town they were models of good 
behaviour, but we can testify to their almost incredible laziness. 
The station-master, himself a native, and I became friends, 
and as he was very hard pressed to get some navvies to patch 
up a bit of his railway, we went together to inspect the labour 
market, as represented by some dozen able-bodied fellows, 
lying on their backs and smoking in the shade near the jetty. 

" HoUa, Locadio, how do ? " 

" Thank you, jefe, I feel myself very well ; hope you feel the 
same ; your servant." 

" I am glad of that ; but you seem to have no work to do." 

" Thanks to God, I have not." 

" I could let you have a small day's work at that wash- 
out, nothing serious, you know ; it could perfectly well stand 
over for a day or two ; but they worry me so, those white 
inspectors, always in a hurry ; yet I should like half-a-dozen 
men. Will you come ? " 

" No. What pay ? " 

" Two pesos for the rest of this day." 

" Oh. not to-day ; and then for three pesos, just as last time." 

" But that was for a full day, Locadito ; however, all right, 
three pesos for to-morrow." 

" Oh, not to-morrow, pasado manana " (the day after to- 
morrow). 

" Loco ! Madman, why not to-morrow ? " 

" Jefe, what a trouble you are ; you yourself paid me three 
pesos last week ; well, I have still four reals in my little 
pocket, and now one wants to on-rib himself (he on his back) 
I am going to sleep." 

This is a faithful sample of the negotiations which the 

station-master had to give up as a bad job. 

***** 

We had traced an iguana into the big tree in the back-yard 
of the inn, and Mateo offered a passing boy a whole real (2|d.) 
to climb up the tree. The offer was refused curtly. Did he 
want more ? " No ! " Nevertheless, that lizard excited us. 
We had just photographed, and then caught with a noose, a 
young one, about ten inches long, which was still bright green ; 



A VANISHING LIZARD 139 

it was at first seen on a bare branch, and when it saw that it 
was observed, it slowly moved on to the leaves of the mango 
tree, and then sat quite still. In the tall mango tree close by 
was a large adult (Ctenosaura acanthinura), and this was 
likewise quite green, instead of a patchy brown or black, like 
those we had known hitherto. Although we climbed the tree 
ourselves, and spent a long time in looking for that big fat 
creature, whose size must have been more than four feet long, 
it gradually vanished before our eyes, mingling to perfection 
with the surrounding foliage, for there was no hollow for it 
to slip into. Later on we found that here on the Isthmus, 
amongst the more luxuriant and permanently green vegetation, 
most of these lizards retained their green dress, in adaptation 
to locally prevailing environmental conditions. The young 
one in time became very tame, and lived in a cage in a green- 
house for nearly two years. During the first four months it 
ate nothing, and became lamentably thin ; then it made up its 
mind to acclimatize itself, cropped the young leaves off the 
geranium plants, took to mealworms, cockroaches and earth- 
worms, and developed a great liking for dandelion blossoms. 
Meanwhile it had become of a dull green, and had shed its skin 
successfully, but remained dull ; after several months, having 
become quite supple, it developed brown and blackish patches, 
all traces of green disappeared, and it gradually assumed the 
coloration which is usual in those specimens which have to 
live in less brightly green and shady surroundings. 

Meanwhile, however, there were other little excitements 
in the zoological line. On the sandy shores of the river flitted 
about the small, sharply striated Cnemidophorus deppei, already 
met with on the open savannahs of Juanita ; in the mouldy 
ground of the jungle lived Dermophis mexicanus, the only 
representative in Mexico of this group of worm-shaped, limb- 
less amphibians. As all their relations are native to South 
and Central America, but do not extend either into the West 
Indies nor to the Galapagos Islands, it is fair to assume that 
this creature has managed to travel over at least 1,500 miles 
of ground since the close of the Miocene epoch, i.e., since the 
separation of the Antilles from the mainland. If this distri- 



140 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

bution began, roundly, a million years ago, then the rate of 
spreading need have been but a few yards per year on the 
average. Such a speculation may seem gratuitous, since we 
know neither distance, time, nor rate of possible progress ; 
but to each of these factors can be assigned an outside limit, 
and the fact remains that these little underground diggers 
have come from somewhere, and must have had time to per- 
form the journey. 

In the broad sandy river were shoals of the curious four-eyed 
fish (Anableps), of which more anon. To ourselves the water 
appeared so warm, and was so laden with sand, that a bath 
was no refreshment, although we tried to imitate the natives 
by lying in the current in the evening for a tediously long time. 
It may have been the shady forest-life, which we had been 
leading until recently, that made the open savannah, the river, 
and the town so trying to us : the worst sensation being the 
burning heat which seemed to collect in one's skin ; the feeling 
of hopelessness as to the drying of anything in the hot, 
moisture-laden atmosphere, and the incessant thirst, very im- 
perfectly quenched by means of small bottles of beer or mineral 
waters, each of which cost half a peso. At an exchange-rate of 
twelve pesos to the pound sterling, this meant about 10d., 
but to the Mexicans it was nearly 2s. The " drink bill " 
threatened to rise to fabulous proportions, and the worst of 
it was that the stuff was warm, and that warm soda-water 
passes through the body as through a sieve. The only real 
and lasting relief proved to be boiled water, and plenty of it 
too, taken hot. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE ISTHMUS OF TEHTTANTEPEC. 

By Rail across the Isthmus Tehuantepec The Women and their Dress Lifo 
at an Inn The Prefect. 

It rained heavily during these August nights, in the early 
morning hours. The streets were then transformed into pools 
of mud, in which big toads wallowed and muttered ; in the 
crowns of the dripping palms sat the black vultures, spreading 
their drenched wings in the rising sun to dry ; but a few hours 
later all the water had vanished, the ground became caked, and 
the whole atmosphere was thick with moisture. On such a 
morning, still in the dark, and at the tail-end of the pouring 
hot rain, we picked our way to the station, fondly hoping to 
catch the 6 o'clock train, which plied on alternate days. But the 
train refused to budge for another hour-and-a-half , on account 
of that little business for which Locadio and his friends were 
wanted. However, we were in ample time at Juile, the 
junction, where the train from Coatzacoalcos was moderately 
late, and we experienced a new sensation, a ride on the 
Isthmus line, and there was every hope of making Tehuantepec 
by 5 or 6 o'clock in the afternoon. 

The line passes through the densest swampy jungle, which 
rises on either side of the narrow road-bed like an impenetrable 
wall, composed of many kinds of herbs, creepers, broad-leaved 
plants and flowers, shrubs and trees. In the foreground were 
selaginella and ferns, and broad-leaved hot-house plants, 
picked out by the vividly orange mock flowers of the 
" platanillo." Then follow shrubs, wild rubber and fig-trees, and 



142 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

palms, all densely packed, and held together by long festoons 
of creepers. All this has grown up within a few years, since 
this railway was built. In the background the primeval forest 
has remained untouched ; the stately limbs of noble trees are 
festooned with long, pendent grey-green masses of Spanish 
beard (Tillandsia usneoides), and these permanently moist 
forests seem to stretch, as a solid blue-green mass, even into the 
far horizon. They are enlivened by the large red macaw, which 
sails like a fiery cross of red and blue through the verdure ; 
or, tamed and educated, watches his mistress, a coffee-brown, 
much wilder and less intelligent beauty, who sings and smokes 
in her hammock under the banana-leaf covered hut, while her 
husband approaches with a pail to beg for some water from the 
engine. That is a little custom which may be seen all over the 
country, where water happens to be scarce or too muddy. The 
engine requires tolerably clean water, and plenty of it, and the 
natives know that a few bananas, mangoes, aguacates, or 
zapotes, not to mention a pineapple, will always open the tap. 
And where is to be found that gruffest of American drivers 
who, on the parched, interminable and dust-swept plains of 
the north, could resist the little ragged maiden who asks for 
" una copita de aguita," " a little cup of waterlet " ? 

To see all this beauty in its tropical profusion is very 
pleasant ; to have to watch it from a crowded train is a very 
different matter. Heat, noise, dirt, and smell, not to use 
stronger terms, assail the senses on all sides. The ill-ventilated 
cars reserved for the natives, crowded to the utmost, resemble 
regular slave-dhows, and emit an intolerable stench. The 
first-class carriages are also crowded, mostly with whites, who 
smoke, spit and swelter with perspiration, deplorable-looking 
people, sallow and drawn, many of whom are hoping to recover 
from some tropical illness by making for the other side of the 
Isthmus, or are ordered to some spot where extra work awaits 
them, the man in charge " being down," although they them- 
selves are equally close to the breaking-point. There is no 
cheerful talk, no story-telling, no humour, no quarrelling, or 
swearing, the general mental atmosphere is far too depressing 
for that. The doors at either end of the cars bang incessantly 



THE ISTHMUS RAILWAY 143 

as they swing to and fro with the jolting and bumping, and at 
every curve the wheels shriek with the grating against the 
rails. The collecting of the fares was done upon principles 
not very remunerative to the company. Every self-respecting 
white man avoided buying a ticket if he could possibly help it, 
and provided himself with a permit for the occasion. For 
the matter of that, we ourselves also had free passes, generously 
granted for a whole month up and down the line. The natives 
were treated differently. When they were bond fide passengers, 
say for a distance of six stations, the conductor gave them a 
ticket for half the distance, and he charged half-price for the 
balance, which he pocketed. In days of stricter supervision 
the trains became quite unpopular. 

That Isthmus railway had cost enormous sums to the 
Mexican Government, which had fully determined upon the 
construction of such a line. During the fifteen years of its 
existence it had never been in working condition, even to a 
moderate extent, and if it had been, there would have been 
no traffic, since the harbour at Coatzacoalcos, on the Atlantic 
side, was next to useless, while on the Pacific side there was none 
at all. At last the Government came to an agreement with 
Sir Weetman Pearson, who had already finished the great 
drainage-system of the valley of Mexico and the harbour works 
at Vera Cruz, to put the whole concern into order, and to 
work it. This involved the construction of proper works at 
the port of Coatzacoalcos, and the making of a great harbour 
at Salina Cruz, while the crazy old line itself had to be rebuilt. 
When we saw it parts of the old permanent way had been 
condemned as hopeless, but were yet used, the new line being 
but partially ready. The difficulties were great indeed. The 
line goes through swamps and dense forests, always, on the 
Atlantic slope, soaked with moisture ; moreover, it follows or 
crosses the vaUeys of streams which are liable to sudden floods, 
while the embankments are cut up by countless rivulets, 
which scoop out the sodden road-bed, while here and there 
long stretches of the red clay slopes slide down. There seems 
to be here every kind of subsoil, from bog and clay to porous 
rubble and hard rocks, limestone, sandstone, and granite. 



144 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

We stuck fast in several places, where the rails had first to be 
cleared of the red clay which had been washed on to them during 
the previous night's rain. But there were also delays for other 
reasons, thus : the train came to a halt at a bridge where a 
pair of oxen had upset a goods train. This sounds improbable, 
but the careless people on it had run the train, with the engine 
at the rear end, into the oxen, which proceeded along the line 
until they fell upon the trestle bridge ; the first car fell into the 
river, the others piled up, and the bridge was broken. It cost 
some trouble to convey the contents of our train to the other 
side through the scene of confusion, and then the whole crowd 
had to await, in this pretty wilderness, the chance of a relief 
train. 

Towards sunset the ordinary east-bound train turned up, 
not knowing what awaited it. At the end of this train was a 
well-equipped private car, which I boarded, in spite of the 
remonstrances of a Chinaman, who had a little English and 
Spanish at his command. " Boss a-dam, dammee mucho 
mal ! " He slammed the door in my face, but a dapper young 
man, a picture of health and of quiet, bustling energy, im- 
mediately mounted the platform, and, hearing that I wanted 
to speak to the boss, said : "I am in command here, if that is 
what you mean by the ' boss ' ; my name is Adam, and this is 
not a passenger car." By the luckiest of accidents we had thus 
fallen in with Mr. Adam, to whom I had a warm letter of 
introduction. With his introduction to my wife, and much 
shaking of hands, followed a complete change of scene. He, 
the commander-in-chief of the harbour works at Salina 
Cruz, had been expecting us for some time, though not 
exactly at this place, at which he was stopped through our 
accident on his way east. Henceforth we were under his 
powerful ceyis, or, rather, we had the pleasure of enjoying the 
friendship, help, and advice of a most courteous and ac- 
complished gentleman. How we revelled in the comparative 
luxury of a late tea, a clean dinner, with even some ice, pre- 
pared by the now beaming Chinaman ! We had not had a bite, 
except fruit, since the early morning, and were without the 
prospect of any more. 



TEHUANTEPEC 145 

It was a hot but lovely night. Near the divide of the 
Isthmus is a kind of open plateau, appearing almost barren by 
contrast with the dense vegetation of the Atlantic slope, and 
here, at Rincon, at a height of 800 feet, railway and other 
engineering works were being established, besides a kind of 
sanatorium. Unfortunately, in spite of the elevation and open 
situation, the general state of health here is, or was, not as 
good as might reasonably be expected, perhaps on account 
of the many pools on the plateau. Thence westwards the whole 
character of the landscape changed in marvellous fashion, 
the Pacific slope having a hot and dry climate. 

We arrived at Tehuantepec at five in the morning instead 
of the previous evening, and awoke on the Pacific side of the 
world. From the way in which people talked about far-off 
Tehuantepec, we were prepared for a kind of miniature tropical 
Paris, and it may be that its well-sounding name enhanced its 
glamour. It is one of those names which stick in one's 
memory since early schooldays. Tehuantepe from the 
Nahoa " tecuani," a wild beast means " jaguar-hill " ; but 
it is named from the white patches of quartz veins in the broken 
face of the porphyritic hill, in which fancy discerns the outline 
of a jaguar. This little hill, in the south-east of the town, 
commands a strikingly-beautiful view of the broad valley of 
the river, the cultivated fields and the woods rising in the north 
upon higher hills, which in their turn develop into jagged 
sierras. It affords, too, by far the best view of the scattered 
town itself, since all the slanting, red-tiled roofs show up well 
amongst the dark green groves of trees, banana plantations, 
bright green fields of sugar-cane and maize. The slope of this 
hill contains the oldest settlements in the place, the real native 
mud-walled huts and houses, rising in irregular tiers, with lanes 
which have never been planned or laid out, but which have 
been wearing themselves, crookedly and deep, into the rubble 
of the ground from time immemorial. On the top stands a 
little shrine of masonry ; it holds no image, but at sunset a 
silent, forbidding man, issuing from the nearest house, climbs 
up to put a lighted lamp into the recess. Many such lights 
are kept burning in niches on the heights which overlook the 



146 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

town from the other side of the river, and well-meaning people 
advise strangers not to venture too near these places, since 
they are dedicated to the native gods, and weird rites are 
practised there in the dead of night. Sometimes a crucifix 
surmounts such a niche, and some even hold a tawdry Madonna. 
These additional things cannot do any harm, and are intended 
to keep off a possibly over-zealous Catholic priest. 

Seen from within, the scattered town looks more like a 
half-deserted village, and this is probably due to the violent 
earthquake which took place in 1901. Many of the houses, 
all of them low and one-storied, were left in ruins, and, instead 
of being cleared away, were left as they had fallen, while others, 
better-looking houses, were put up somewhere else. But most 
of the place looks as if it had been deserted fifty years ago, 
with open spaces, buried in deep sand, here a few scrubby 
trees, there an attempt towards forming a street, which is 
nowhere paved, but possesses a raised side-walk composed of 
slabs or boards along and in front of the houses. There is, 
however, a large square with a well-kept garden, surrounded 
by some municipal buildings and the principal shops ; but even 
the well-to-do and there are some rich people here do not 
make a pretence at living in anything like moderately com- 
fortable houses. The inhabitants seemed to have earthquake on 
the brain. Severe shakings are, of course, rare, but even during 
our short stay not a day passed without one or more slight 
" temblones," which, by us inexperienced people, were at first 
taken for a passing steam-roller. The popular belief is that a 
good rain overnight stops the chances of any serious convulsion, 
at least, that is what they excitedly talked about in the 
mornings. 

We went straight to early mass, and saw many things 
characteristic of the place. The body of a man, who had died 
of " some fever," was taken from his house to be hastily buried, 
the women in the house sending up a heartrending howl which 
soon changed into a regulated long-drawn wail, the howl being 
renewed whenever a new mourning friend appeared. At last 
the men trotted off with their burden, and there was an end to 
that particular scene. The church, an old Spanish building, 




MACHETES AND KNIVES. 



L 2 



148 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

looked a most picturesque ruin ; it had a wide rent from top 
to bottom, and was so unsafe that it had been gutted and 
closed. They had constructed a roomy hall, in the form of a 
lean-to, and this was covered with corrugated iron, and 
supported by railway sleepers, iron pipes, and other bridge- 
building material belonging to the railway ; most of the old 
furniture had been put into the new building, and all was 
clean and neatly arranged, only it looked very much like a 
hastily-improvised stage at a fair, and this impression was 
enhanced by the behaviour of the orchestra, all players of 
wind instruments, who were a little late in coming. The 
priests were already officiating, and two men in the right 
farther corner were blowing for all they were worth, to 
make up for deficient parts. Now in came the trombone, 
crossed himself hastily, made a deep genuflexion, and in the 
very act of rising, joined in with a " prrump." Next came the 
piccolo-flute, who, without further ado, tootled himself up 
the aisle and joined the orchestra, which was thus rendered 
complete. 

In the same building we assisted at a wedding, at which 
the bride was bedecked with green and gold. This was a good 
opportunity of seeing the famous " huipiles " of the Tehuanas. 
" Huipil " is the Nahoa name for an embroidered chemise, 
which is worn by most other tribes in the usual way, but 
these particular " huipiles " have undergone a peculiar trans- 
cendental development, having grown into a purely ornamental 
garment, and from continued one-sided use have lost their 
original capacity of being put over the body. The " huipilli " 
is, in fact, a short white chemise, to the neck and waist of 
which is attached an elaborate frill of lace about a foot or more 
in width. The sleeves, when there are any, are either sewn up, 
or are represented by ribbons. The whole thing is starched, 
and is worn in several ways. When walking in the street 
they wear it with the neck portion resting upon the shoulders, 
and the waist is turned up over the head, and serves as a 
sunshade. For going to church and similar festive occasions, 
the rim of the neck is fastened round the face and tied under 
the chin, so that the starched neck-frill stands out like a 



BEAUTIFUL WOMEN 149 

gorgeous Elizabethan ruff, while the waist-frill rests upon and 
covers the shoulders, bosom, and bare arms down to the 
elbows ; one sleeve hangs in front, the other droops over the 
shoulder. The whole affair only wants a pretty face to set it 
off, and beauty is indeed a striking feature of most of these 
Tehuanas, or " tiger-beauties," as we called them. Their usual 
dress consisted of a short- waisted blouse, low in the neck, 
without sleeves ; the neck and armholes were edged or bordered 
with contrasted needlework, the principal colours being red or 
purple in various patterns. Secondly, they wore the " enagua," 
a skirt, likewise of cotton, either white or coloured. Over this 
was sometimes worn what might be termed a short overskirt. 
The Tehuana does not wear shoes, she even dances barefooted, 
and has no need to be ashamed of her deficiency in this respect. 
She is extraordinarily fond of enhancing her beauty by adorn- 
ing her raven hair with bright, scented flowers, and by wearing 
jewellery, though she is liable to overdo the latter, since she 
converts her savings into rings, gold chains, filigree work, and 
gold watches, and it is not unusual to see four or more valuable 
watches dangling on long chains about the waist of a wealthy 
lady. We never tired of admiring these women, who are 
notoriously the most beautiful in the whole Republic ; of course, 
not all of them are so, but the majority are very handsome, 
with a beautiful figure, excellently graceful carriage, and not 
at all undersized. Even their movements are likewise most 
graceful, this remark applying to the wealthy as well as to the 
servant class. " Tiger beauty " indeed was theirs ; but it 
does not last, and they are liable to grow fat. But there is 
nowhere absolute perfection, always some drawback, and here 
it consists in the grating and utterly unmelodious voice of these 
friendly and lively women. Their complexion ranges from 
a dark coffee-brown to almost white, every degree of mixture 
of the aboriginal Indian and the European races being repre- 
sented ; what these natives were like at the time of the 
conquest we do not know, but they must have been attractive, 
and these attractions have borne fruit ever since. The 
selective principle has worked well, and the women are fully 
aware of their power. In fact, they are the power in the 



150 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

whole district, which should consequently be a paradise for 
suffragettes. They do little menial work, mainly the fetching 
of water, the preparing of tortillas, and washing. Yet 
nearly the whole of the trade is in their hands ; so much so, 
indeed, that all commercial transactions are done by them, or 
at least require their sanction. 

At the market-place all the vendors are women, most of 
them sitting on low, peculiarly-shaped chairs, called " butacas," 
which are covered with the skin of a jaguar, or a cow, or with 
red-stained leather. The goods are brought and deposited 
by the men, who then withdraw. There are " huipiles " 
and other forms of clothing of many colours and patterns ; 
heaps of fruit and flowers ; turkeys, fowls, fish, and meat, 
and a curious sight rows of " tilcampos," or black iguanas, 
which are worth two fowls each, being much esteemed for their 
delicate flesh ; the poor things are alive, but can neither bite 
nor scratch, since their legs are tied together with their own 
tendons, and they are similarly muzzled. Another corner is 
given up to pottery, notably the hard-baked black Juchitan 
ware, mostly large oval-shaped vessels ; " jicaras," large and 
small cups, dishes and basins, made of gourds, gorgeously 
painted, and often inscribed with a name ; cocoanuts with 
engraved patterns and perforated, used as coffee strainers, 
the same neatly-shaped utensil, with an additional handle, 
being also made of the firm black clay ; quaintly carved pieces 
of wood, in an infinity of patterns, but always with two loose 
rings, are the universal implements employed for stirring and 
crushing the chocolate. 

Of the chief local industries may be mentioned the weaving 
of cotton goods, the most prized being blouses and skirts 
composed of fibres which, before they are woven, have been 
dyed with the juice of the purple snail. Much Indian corn, 
cotton, and coffee is grown and exported, and the same 
applies to the sugar-cane, used for the production of " cafia," 
or sugar-brandy. Above all, the town is the collecting centre 
of the trade that is carried across the Isthmus, both to 
Oaxaca and far into Central America. 

The population of the town and immediate neighbourhood 




EH 
W 



o o 



152 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

amounts to more than 10,000, almost all of these being 
Zapoteca, many of whom still speak only their native idiom. 
The place is moderately healthy, much better than the 
Atlantic side. During our visit it was troubled by yellow fever, 
but the cases, although all fatal, were sporadic, though, of 
course, more numerous than was officially admitted. The 
doctor's wife had just died, and the doctor, on this account, 
felt somewhat under a cloud, the difficulty being aggravated 
by the fact that he was a foreigner. A few people died suddenly 
overnight, and were hastily buried, and it was given out that 
they had come from somewhere else. Things looked a little 
alarming when a troop of actors arrived from Guatemala, and 
took lodgings in the opposition inn, where there happened to be 
a genuine case of yellow fever. This caused an exodus, and the 
histrionic company took shelter in our inn, where one of the 
" stars " wept over this particular " yellow peril," though 
another was much more afraid of the " sanguesugas," or 
vampires. Both were a nuisance, swinging all day long in the 
hammocks of the little " patio," and jabbering, singing, and 
bewailing their ill-luck. 

There are two inns in the town, both managed by Basques, 
one called Tocaven, the other named Bustillo. The latter 
was married to a Spanish-Mexican woman, and yet his younger 
sons looked typical half-blood Indians. But that is just what 
happens in these countries. Being run by a Basque, the inn was 
very orderly, though otherwise most moderate in style ; the 
charge per person for " asistencia " i.e., board and lodging 
was two pesos per day, but Tehuantepec is a dear place for the 
little which it has to offer. However, drinks were plentiful 
and of great variety, from soda to firewater, stuff that could 
rival the juice of the tarantula, so that it was doubtful which 
might be less dangerous. Of the soda-water we could never 
get more than two bottles at a time, the reason being that 
only four bottles were in existence. This explained the ex- 
traordinary proposal which came from another man, to set up 
a " fabrica de aguas gazeosas y minerales," if assisted with the 
capital of five pesos necessary to purchase the plant. When 
we found that the water would be taken from the river, we felt 




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AN ENERGETIC RULER 155 

sorry. The water supply was bad, there being no springs, not 
even wells. Every day at sunrise and after sunset the women 
trooped to the river, where they scraped holes in the sand to get 
a mere puddleful of " filtered " water, whilst they themselves 
chatted and bathed in the river. Then each in turn took a 
drink, lifted the heavy porous jar on to her head, and walked 
off, in stately fashion, squirting out a large mouthful of water 
as she went a trying, but universal habit of the country. 

Tehuantepec, being such an important centre of commerce, 
has many vice-consulates, in the charge of some trader as usual. 
Not only in Mexico, but elsewhere, the German consular official 
gives his travelling countrymen all the information and help 
he requires, and no less surely will remark : "I know of a place 
where we can spend an evening together, where there is ' echt 
Pilsener,' and where we shall find ' landsleute.' ' 

The English official, provided the credentials come from 
the right quarters and the less official they are the better is 
less profuse with information, but invites you to dinner, where 
men likely to be useful will be met. 

The Prefect of Tehuantepec, Sr. Demetrio Santibanez, 
was an exceptionally vigorous man, and proved of the greatest 
help to ourselves. Tall, strongly built, fearless as a lion, he 
ruled the district with firmness and tact, not an easy matter 
with a population whose leading characteristics, according to 
him, are " independence and laziness." He was always full 
of "go," and did everything himself. First he had to settle 
a complicated conjugal quarrel, cross-question witnesses, and 
smilingly threaten the husband with imprisonment unless he 
modified his attitude ; then he sent for the young woman to 
be confronted with her spouse, threatened to lock them up 
together, argued, admonished, made them kiss his hand, and 
sent them off rejoicing. " Any fine ? " " No, my little ones, 
but if you don't keep your promise I shall catch your husband 
and make a soldier of him." Then he whisked round, signed 
some papers, snatched another from a too leisurely clerk, 
and rattled off a type- written copy with his own hands. " I 
am so busy ; will you wait, or come back after an hour ? No, 
better have a look round the garden, and I will send my orderly 



156 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

with you." I shall always regret having omitted to photograph 
that tatterdemalion orderly in sandals, with his revolver, 
"machete," rod of office, short, wide cotton trousers, disgraceful 
military tunic, and black-ribboned straw hat. Demetrio was 
himself fond of animals. In his own large and clean house he 
had a little menagerie, consisting of parrots, doves, a " pavo " 
i.e., some kind of penelope, or curassow a monkey, and a young 
deer. One of the most remarkable creatures, according to 
him, was a lizard, transparent, brittle as glass, and dreadfully 
poisonous ; it was a gecko ! Deer were brought in every morn- 
ing in numbers, and the skins could be got for fifty centavos ; 
but the hunters could not be persuaded to bring the heads, 
since these are invariably cut off and buried, by way of pro- 
pitiating the spirits, the lips having first been sprinkled with 
water. The skin of the jaguar is valued at from three to four 
pesos only. 

Sr. Demetrio, having cleared the district of not a few danger- 
ous characters, and being honest, had many enemies, and slept 
in a well-barricaded room, guarded by some devoted hench- 
men. The greatest power in the town was a certain old woman, 
who ruled the place by means of her shrewdness and wealth, 
and through moneylending had got many of the people into 
her hands. Every important transaction required her sanction, 
lest it should go awry. Illustrious strangers were supposed 
to call on her. It was no secret that she and the Prefect did 
not pull together, and that she used her best influence to 
prevent his approaching reappointment. 

A month later President Diaz granted me an audience, to 
report about our trip, and soon got on the subject of Tehuante- 
pec, where, I could truthfully tell him, I had received much 
exceptionally vigorous help from the Prefect. " Oh, Santi- 
bafiez, he is the right man for them." What the President 
does not know about his own country is not worth knowing. 
It so happens that this man of iron will has kept a soft spot 
in his heart for Tehuantepec, ever since, many years ago, he 
was military commandant at that place, and that, too, during 
most unruly times. There is still told the story of a revolt 
which he quelled by clapping the women into prison ; next 



DIFFICULT SUBJECTS 157 

morning there was a dearth of tortillas, and there was nobody 
to prepare them, and this broke the resistance of the disaffected 
citizens. However, even Sr. Demetrio's powers were limited. 
He could not force unwilling and lazy, but free, Zapoteca to 
keep an engagement. We wanted to spend a few days at the 
coast lagoons among the Huavi tribe, whose chief village, 
San Mateo del Mar, is scarcely more than twenty miles from 
the town. It was enough for the owners of the necessary 
animals to see the orderly making enquiries to delight in show- 
ing their independence. We were determined not to spend 
another night with that company at the inn, and at last en- 
gaged a peasant with his ox-cart, Demetrio, the orderly, Mateo 
and myself having worried, interviewed, and pleaded till noon, 
and again at 3 p.m. after the noonday siesta, as the " carriage " 
was to be ready at 5 p.m. Then we waited and waited, rushed 
about once more, lost what was left of our temper, and formed 
a sad and exhausted trio. It is these petty worries and delays, 
and the chafing feeling of helplessness, which are more ex- 
hausting than anything else. A whole day was gone, and most 
of the previous afternoon, and it had been crazily hot, about 
95 F., in the coolest shade, without a breath of wind. Then, 
at 8 p.m., the two-wheeled ox-cart came to the back-door, and 
half-an-hour later we were off. 




HIEROGLYPH TEHUANTEPEC. 

Tecuani-tepec = Jaguar Hill. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

A VISIT TO THE HT7AVI TRIBE. 

Travelling by Ox-cart San Mateo del Mar The Huavi Education The 
Lagoons Tortoises and Iguanas First sight of the Pacific Characteristics 
of the People and their Houses The return Journey An ancient Hiero- 
glyphic Map at Huilotepec A Turtle Dinner. 

The owner of our ox-cart, a Zapotec, knew only a few 
words of Spanish, and we knew nothing of his idiom. He had 
half-filled the cart with leaves of Indian corn as provender, 
and this made a good bed for my wife between the baggage. 
Slowly we crawled out of the town, and then struggled and 
bumped over the slabs of rock in the utter darkness until the 
plain was reached. Progress with oxen is slow anyhow, and 
these were particularly deliberate ; one of them, a brown beast, 
was called " Tilcampo " the iguana ; the other's name was 
" Necre " ; Mateo thought that this was meant for " negro " 
black as the creature was of that colour, but the owner 
thought otherwise. Early in the morning we made Huilotepec, 
not yet half-way, and prepared a little tea . by the riverside. 
By sunrise the oxen were exhausted, not so much by the amount 
of the load or the distance traversed, as by the fact that they 
were not " a yoke," Necre being only about half the size of 
Tilcampo, who towered above him. 

The surroundings were pretty enough, the road passing 
most of the way through low jungle ; dew was dripping from 
the leaves, and a king vulture sat in a tree, so near that 
I could have touched him with the ox-goad ; then he 
woke up, shook himself, and began preening his feathers. 



OX-CART TRAVELLING 



159 



" ' Cozcaquautli,' neck-lace eagle, my forefathers called this 
bird," said Mateo, who was a Mejicano. A solitary tree-frog 
was sitting near by, and a green and yellow spotted snake 
(Drymobius margaritiferus) was climbing a tree on the other side. 
Soon the oxen refused to go another step, and the village 
was not yet in sight across the seemingly endless plain. After 
much talk and gesticulation, the Zapotec was induced to take 
a message to the village asking for a relay of oxen, whilst we 
cooked breakfast and waited. Hours later the Zapotec re- 
turned with a good yoke of oxen and also a native, a Huave, 



Juchitan 
,o 




GULF OF TEH UA NT EP EC 



THE ISTHMUS AND BAY OF TEHTJANTEPEC. 

who did not speak either Spanish or Zapotec, and soon ran 
back to make his report to his authorities, whilst our 
" Pullman," as Mateo called the ox-cart, followed steadily. 
The oxen are either driven by the man who sits on the pole 
and talks to them incessantly, or they are led that means to 
say, they follow a person who walks a yard in front of them 
and sets the pace. For a while I was entrusted with this office, 
while the rest of the company tried to sleep perched up on the 
cart. All went well for a time, but then there was a commotion, 
followed by shouting in three languages, as the oxen charged a 
boulder, upsetting the cart into a roadside pool. The passengers 
made uncomplimentary remarks quite beside the point, as it 



160 



THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 



was really the fault of some tiny toads which had tempted 
me to turn aside to a puddle to catch them, whither the 
oxen had followed me ! A single specimen was secured, which 
in London was recognised as a new species of Cystignathidce, 
and immortalized as Eupemphix gadowi. 

The whole country is quite flat, the plain was scarcely a 
dozen feet above the sea, the soil a sandy grit mixed with pebbles, 
while here and there were pools but a few inches deep, which, 
in some cases, had dried up, leaving behind a white saline 




TRAVELLING BY OX-CART. 



crust. The well-grown trees of Tehuantepec are replaced by 
trees of lower growth, standing separately, spreading out their 
branches, umbrella-fashion, intolerant of epiphytes. The 
thorny mimosas, with their carmine blooms, had disappeared 
with the drier ground. In more swampy places were cocoanut 
palms and many fan palms, also good-sized organ cactuses and 
opuntias, and that although this ground is periodically 
inundated. One of the most peculiar trees was some kind of 
Crescentia, or " jicaro "-tree, the cauliflorous fruits of 
which, shaped like gourds and flasks, are used as " jicaras," 
or vessels. 



SAN MATED DEL MAR. 161 

Some of the deeper and permanent pools are surrounded 
with thick jungle, rushes, and reeds, inhabited by many birds, 
such as various kinds of heron and bittern, wood-ibises, rosy 
spoonbills, snake-birds, tree-ducks, stilts, and sandpipers. 
On the open ground were long-billed curlews and stone- 
curlews, looking as large as ostriches when standing on the 
little hillocks, the latter rendered invisible, and the birds 
themselves enormously magnified by the mirage. 

San Mateo del Mar, a distance of only twenty miles, was 
reached about noon, after a journey of sixteen hours. The 





MARKET PLACE OF SAN MATEO DEL MAR. 

head of the district, with the other local officials and the school- 
master, were awaiting us. " Stop ! Who are you to com- 
mandeer a yoke of oxen ? Have you any papers ? " When 
the schoolmaster had read and interpreted the Prefect's 
emphatic letter of recommendation, their manner, dignified 
and firm, though still somewhat suspicious, changed at once, 
and they bade us a hearty welcome. We were lodged in the 
" curato," where, with our camp bedsteads, we did pretty well, 
though there were fleas in abundance ! The party was too 
exhausted to do much that day but swing in the hammocks of 
the priest, who was away, and explain to the authorities the 
object of the visit. 

M 



162 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

San Mateo del Mar, or Huazontlan, is the most im- 
portant of the four villages of the Huavi,* who inhabit the flat 
lagoon district south of Tehuantepec, close to the Pacific shores. 
The whole tribe now counts not more than 3,500 souls. At 
the time of the Spanish conquest they seem to have had vague 
traditions that they came from the south ; a recent study of 
their language by that accomplished linguist and philologist, 
Don Francisco Belmar, has shown that they belong to the great 
Maya family. They are quite isolated from any tribes who 
might be their possible relations, being hemmed in from the 
west and north by the Zapoteca, to the east by the Xoconochco, 
and to the south by the ocean, which they do not navigate. 
The name " Huavi," by which they are known, has been 
given them by the Zapoteca, and means " rotten," obviously 
a term of contempt. Their principal occupation is the catching 
of fish and crustaceans, which abound in the lagoons. They 
keep cattle, but do not kill them for food. They have one 
industry, which is probably quite peculiar to them, namely, 
the weaving of small pieces of cotton cloth, " huatz " hence 
the Aztec name of " San Mateo " which they dye with the 
juice of the Purpura patula, a marine shell which is common 
on the rocks. Brasseur de Bourbourgf gives an account 
which has found its way into both German and Spanish books : 
" When the women, half up to their knees in the water, find 
such a mollusc, they take the shell gently off the rock between 
two fingers, and squeeze the violet juice upon their cotton, 
and then carefully replace the creature in order not to destroy 
it." Fancy a big, limpet-like shell allowing itself to be lifted 
gently from its rock ! Moreover, the juice squeezed out from the 
animal is colourless, or of a milky white, and turns purple only 
after hours of exposure to the air. The reader who is interested 
in this matter will find a fuller account in Chapter XXI. 

The original religious customs of the Huavi have been much 
suppressed by the missionaries, who established themselves 
early amongst these peaceful people ; moreover, they were to 

* The paper by Nicolas Leon, " Los Huavi Antonio Alzate," XVI. 
(1901), pp. 103-129, contains a map and a bibliography. 

f " Revue Orientale et Americaine," Vol. V., Paris, 1861. 



THE HUAVI TRIBE 163 

a certain extent civilized by the neighbouring Zapotecs. On 
the occasion of several official raids, which were made not long 
ago upon their sacred places, a few terra-cotta idols were found 
and carried away to the museums of Oaxaca and Mexico. 
These were human figures in a sitting, cross-legged posture, 
with large ornamental mitres, though it is uncertain whether 
these finds were of genuine Huavi make, or had been imported 
from the Zapotec. Such raids of this kind, and the consequent 
punishments idolatry being forbidden have made these 
retired people very suspicious of sudden visits, and thej^ are 
extremely reticent. We did not gain admission to the church, 
although we tried our best, and the promise to open it two or 
three days later, when the priest would be there, had no 
attractions, since by that time all the interesting little pagan 
outfit would have been safely removed. The Huavi still 
venerate crocodiles as their spiritual brothers and sisters, 
the soul of every crocodile being deemed to be intimately 
connected with that of some person who will die if the reptile 
dies. It must have been a rude shock to them when, a few years 
ago, a gang of American skin-hunters slew nearly all the 
crocodiles. The people still feel bitter about it, but, being a 
peaceful tribe, they left the " Gringos " alone ; moreover, 
their hands were tied, since, as they were nominally good 
Christians, they could not very well put forward their plea of 
Saurian affinity. Had they been Zapoteca, every one of the 
white hunters would have met with an " accident." 

We became quite fond of the Huavi. Most of the in- 
terpreting was done by the schoolmaster, who, as is usual 
amongst the less civilized tribes, was a Zapotec, thanks to the 
extraordinary mental capacity of this people. His business 
was to teach the children Spanish, the instruction being given 
both in this language and in the vernacular. The elementary 
schools being free, entirely supported by the Government, and 
education being compulsory, there was no great hardship in that. 
The head men, of course, spoke Spanish. Let us for a moment 
consider the mental standing of such a schoolmaster. He 
must know, and speak fluently, two languages in the present 
case he spoke three, his native Zapotec, Spanish, and Huavi. 

M2 



164 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

He had obtained his education at Oaxaca. Such atribe gradually 
becomes bi-lingual, and may remain so for many generations ; 
if they are intelligent, enter into commerce, and possess towns, 
the vernacular gradually fades away, and Spanish reigns 
supreme. Such bi-lingual people and tribes are called 




THE ZAPOTEC SCHOOLMASTER AND THE PRESIDENTS MUNICIPAL. 

" Ladinos," a Spanish term, which, for obvious reasons, has 
come to mean clever, canny, cute. They are fully aware of 
the advantages of Spanish as the surest way of communication, 
in a country where, as for instance on the Isthmus, in Oaxaca, 
and Guerrero, very different tribes are inextricably mixed. 
Their respective languages are sometimes so fundamentally 
different that, for instance, the Zapotec, with his quasi- 



A CANOE EXPEDITION 165 

monosyllabic idiom, finds it as eas}' to learn the universal 
Spanish as the polysynthetic Aztec, of which, after all, he 
would only learn one of the many dialects. Sometimes this 
Spanish is very interesting on account of its hybrid nature. 
Not the mere mixture of words, that means nothing, except 
that it enriches the language, but the natives will still think 
in their old vernacular, even although they may no longer 
speak it. In Southern Guerrero, where Nahoa was the latest, 
although not the original, native idiom, and where now 
Spanish is spoken, a man will sometimes express the idea of 
" in my house " by "mi casa dentro," instead of " en mi 
casa," still clinging to the Aztec syntax of " no-cal-co " 
" my-house-in." 

On the morning after our arrival we found a full-grown 
marine turtle lying on her back in front of the door. It was a 
present from the village, and they had deposited the heavy 
creature without making the slightest noise, in order to surprise 
us. The Presidente then invited us to a trip over the lagoons. 
The village lies on a narrow strip of lowland between the sea 
and the lagoons, which communicate with the sea. They are 
divided into the lower or outer lagoon, called " Diuk guialiat," 
and the larger upper or inner lagoon, " Diuk guialoni." The 
narrow channel between them is named " Tiak-mash-mual," 
i.e., " hill passes canoe," meaning where the canoe passes 
between hills. The shores are mostly sandy, covered with 
poor vegetation. The bottom of the lagoons is quite hard, and 
a great portion of the inner estuary is shallow at least, I could 
walk into it for hundreds of yards. During the winter, or 
dry season, much of the inner lagoon is said to become dry ; 
in its eastern half are about a dozen little islands, or rather 
rocks, covered with scrub. The people had a flat-bottomed 
canoe ready, a dug-out, large enough for a dozen people ; 
but they never use sails nor oars, only long poles for punting. 
A fresh breeze made the water rather choppy ; and to prevent 
the canoe from getting swamped they put up pieces of plaited 
palm-matting on the weather side. 

Far from the shore some men were fishing, standing up to 
the waist in the water, and quite naked, but with the head 



166 

covered by a sombrero, around which were wound the clothes. 
These men, burnt a deep black-brown through the glare and 
heat, were fishing with " atarrayas," conical, rather shallow 
and round nets, the circular rims of which were " leaded " 
with those little perforated terra-cotta discs, so common in 
ethnological collections. The fisherman holds the net by the 
centre, swings it round, and then lets it go, when it spreads 
flat over the water, and is hauled back by a rope attached to 
the centre. The lagoons seem to be teeming with fish, shrimps, 
and larger sorts of crustaceans, so that the Huavi need not 
go for fish to the ocean, the terrific surf of which their clumsy 
canoes could not possibly withstand. 

We landed on a narrow spit, and found quite a little 
reptilian fauna : the small and the large sharply striated 
Cnemidophorus lizards, C. deppei, and C. immutabilis ; these 
were being preyed upon by a snake (Zamenis mentovarius), 
in the successful chase of which everybody joined, with the 
merry and excited Presidente at their head, and the snake in 
Him found its enemy in the shape of the omnivorous black 
iguana (Ctenosura acanthinurus), which, in default of finding 
sufficiently large trees at hand, burrows in the ground. Whilst 
one of these iguanas was being unearthed, there tumbled out 
of the loose sand a specimen of the rather rare Geagras 
redimita, a little burrowing snake, with tiny eyes, and of a 
whitish-yellow colour, like the sand in which it lives. A box- 
tortoise was also amongst the spoils. At some places the shore, 
instead of being sand and pebbles, was one mass of heaped-up 
shells. 

These dunes are inhabited by a hare, which the four 
specimens that we brought home proved to be Lepus calotis, 
var. flavigularis, a rather large hare, with most conspicuous 
white hind-quarters. Various visitors have mentioned them 
as rabbits, in conformity with the account of the earliest 
Spanish chroniclers, who dilated upon the abundance of these 
" cone j os," or " conies." It is the only place where we met 
with this easily-recognisable species. 

The return to the house brought us an agreeable surprise. 
The Zapotec master had given his school a holiday, in order 



FORTY-SEVEN TORTOISES 167 

to take them out on a tortoise hunt in the neighbourhood, and 
he had kraaled the spoils under the verandah, to the amuse- 
ment of the adult population. There were no less than forty- 
seven specimens ! Thirteen Chrysemys grayi, and six C. 
ornata, which Mateo at once christened " chatas " snub-noses ; 
three Nicoria rubida, of which we had already found one in 
the shrubs (this being a terrestrial kind), and twenty-five box- 
tortoises (Cinosternum cruentatum), a decidedly Central 
American species, which here seems to find its northern limit. 
Of course, there was great rejoicing, and our kind helpers were 
invited into the "curato" to partake of some refreshment. Here 
the Presidente, a man of delightful manners, showed his tact 
and dignity. He took a cup, bowed, and made a little speech ; 
the boatmen were soon dismissed as likely to incommode us, 
and it was only on repeated pressure that he allowed a few others 
to come in, calling out each man's title by way of introduction. 
First, " Sr.Syndico " i.e., the chairman of the annually elected 
village council and so forth. Later, he was invited to tea, 
which was a new beverage to him, and whilst he was sitting 
there his eyes fastened on our folding canvas bath, which had 
been recently filled. Perhaps his stare was too much for the 
rickety thing ; somehow it gave way and flooded the floor. 
The man's face became a study, he was internally convulsed 
with laughter, and yet he tried to suppress it until he took a 
hasty leave. 

The night was not very restful. As the tortoises could not 
well be left outside, we put them in the neighbouring empty 
room of the "curato," to keep Mateo company. All night long 
those forty-seven hard-shelled creatures bumped about, 
tumbled over each other, piled themselves up in one corner 
and then tried the other, always with the same unsatisfactory 
result. The day-time provided other diversions. The roof 
of the house was inhabited by black iguanas, which are not 
eaten by the Huavi, and which therefore provided ample 
opportunity for studying their habits. In the morning they 
came out of their crevices to bask in the sun, their patchy 
grey and dark-brown colour changing meanwhile to black. 
Then they climbed into the mango trees to eat leaves, and lie 



168 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

in wait for insects, especially for the shrilling " cicadas." Now 
and then one climbed down the stem, head downwards, with 
its tail flexed in a curve, and on reaching the ground tore up 
a mouthful of grass, which it chewed deliberately. At first 
they were not shy. and could be caught with a stick and noose, 
which they allowed us to slip over their heads. Like all other 
lizards, they paid little attention to the noose, keeping their 
eyes fixed upon the person. When caught they became very 
wild, biting, scratching, and dealing painful blows with their 
strong tails. Some which got loose in the house became a terror 
to the inmates, running in their senseless fright even up one's 
body, in order to try and jump on to the beams overhead 
and the twenty claws of a large iguana are as strong, sharp 
and curved as those of a tiger-cat ! 

Mateo and I went to the sea one afternoon when the heat, 
reflected from the sand and water, was less trying. Between 
the village and the ocean is a long but narrow lagoon of brackish 
water without an outlet, both sides being covered with scrub 
and low forest. In the middle of the lagoon we saw something 
bobbing up and down, and stalked it, crawling on our bellies 
with the utmost care, only to find that it was our own turtle, 
which the people had moored to a stake there. Having had 
to strip, to swim the lagoon, and not knowing what more 
water there might be, we left our clothes and proceeded without 
them. I myself dressed in a pair of short bathing trousers, 
which had often to be ready for emergencies, so that we soon 
found our costume to be quite in keeping with that of the men 
who lived there, away from the village. These men walked 
about quite naked, with only a " tapa-rabo " or narrow strip 
of cotton passed through the fork, and tied to a plaited loin- 
string. All these men and boys, who rarely wear clothes, are 
much darker than those who dress, and all the females were 
much lighter in colour. Further, where the loin-string presses 
upon the skin the latter invariably becomes of a bluish tint, 
owing to the black pigment which the irritation causes to be 
deposited in the brown ground-colour. The wood was mainly 
inhabited by large brown pigeons, but also, curiously enough, 
by the " road-runner " (Geococcyx affinis), which uttered a loud 



AN INTERESTING VILLAGE 169 

but low note sounding like " Bo." Iguanas also had made 
burrows, the sand being heaped up between the roots as around 
a rabbit-warren. Our first sight of the Pacific was somewhat 
disappointing ; a flat, reckless shore, upon which broke long 
and mighty rollers, although the sea was as calm as a mill- 
pond, the rollers being of a dirty yellow-brown colour. 
Rashly I went in for a bathe, but was not prepared for the 
tremendous surf, which threw me and rolled me about like a 
log, whilst Mateo danced about in helpless excitement. On 
the shore were several dogs, which were said to have per- 
manently strayed away from the village, and to subsist entirely 
upon the shore-crabs, which they hunted in pairs, and then 
devoured on the dry land. There was not a single shell, nor 
any driftwood, along all this desolate coast, only pebbles and 
brown mud. 

The village is not less interesting than the people. The 
church, a remnant of an old Spanish mission, was kept in good 
condition, but, as mentioned before, we could not gain ad- 
mittance. On account of earthquakes the bell-tower is a low 
shed in front of the church, with some ancient bells, and a 
couple of gigantic stationary drums made of hollow trunks, 
which are used not only for church festivals, but, when played 
in a certain way, for summoning the men officially. 

The dwelling-houses are very different from those in other 
parts of Mexico. To a certain extent they remind one of the 
houses of the Huasteca, north of the State of Vera Cruz, and 
those of the Maya, at least to judge from photographs. The 
principal feature is the very high pitch of the roof, which is 
thatched with the short leaves of the fan palms ; the walls are 
sometimes wattle-and-daub, sometimes thatched like the roof. 
The eaves are narrow. The interior consists of one room, at 
one end of which are the sleeping mats. On one side stands a 
kind of altar, adorned with the usual tawdry pictures of saints, 
but also with other, much more interesting, things, which the 
owners will on no account allow to be approached. From the 
beams are suspended the few household goods ; the fireplace 
is not raised, but is on the ground. From one of the houses, 
one of the few which we were allowed to enter, we carried off a 



170 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

pair of old iron stirrups, of the same quaint design as was used 
by the old " conquistadores." Another feature of these settle- 
ments is that the houses of the well-to-do stand in a kind of 
enclosure, fenced in by flimsy but high stockades of reeds, with 
a movable shutter for the gate. Within the enclosed ground, 
which has an agreeable, tidy appearance, stand a few nice 
trees, a palm, or a ceiba-tree, and mangoes. Detached from 
the house is a kind of verandah, well thatched, beneath which 
are slung the hammocks. 

The flowing garments and the beauty of the Tehuanas are 




STOCKADED ENTRANCE. 

here unknown. Most of the women, but none of the men, are 
slightly tattoed, or rather, marked by a pair of small but deep 
scars beneath the high cheekbones ; the mouth is large and 
rather prominent, and the nose is flat, while the hair is tied 
in a sort of top-knot ; consequently they are not exactly 
beautiful. The men make a very different impression : although 
of medium or short stature, they are well built ; the nose is 
aquiline, with a narrow bridge, much bent towards the tip, 
and is larger than in any other of the Mexican tribes, even 
larger and more prominent than that of the Zapoteca. The 
black and straight hair is cut short ; the beard grows very late, 



BRACKISH WATER 171 

and is, in the pure race, restricted to the chin. A few of the 
old men have grey hair, but none of them white. 

The men were always busy with a distaff, spinning thread, 
or else making nets, which they slung round their waists whilst 
walking about and talking. Their favourite assembly-place 
was an enormous, wide-spreading tree. On our round of visits, 
the Alcalde, or judge, was, of course, not forgotten ; the fact 
that he had hitherto not shown himself was explained by his 
fondness for drink, and he was rather a surly old boy. 




PRESIDENT AND HIS FAMILY, SAN MATEO. 

We were quite sorry to leave this village after a sojourn of 
four days. Food had been plentiful ; with fruit, the eggs of 
fowls and turtles the latter rather too oily and fish, nobody 
fared badly, but it was a question of drinking-water which 
compelled us to move. All the water around is got from clean 
wells, which are scratched a few inches or a foot deep into the 
hard sand, but unfortunately it is brackish, and although this 
taste could be concealed, the salt remained, and when drunk 
in quantities it amounted to more than was desirable. 
Moreover, our Mateo was not well. 



172 



THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 



The return journey promised to be quick, yet it took 
thirteen hours, but was full of interest. The Zapotec, with 
his Tilcampo and Necre, was dispatched with the baggage, 
whilst we followed in the afternoon in a Huavi cart, with the 
tortoises, iguanas, and the big turtle slung at the back of the 
cart, we having offered to take the turtle as a present from 
the village to the Prefect at Tehuantepec. In one of the pools 
still stood the very same horses, well above their bellies in the 




THE ALCALDE AND HIS FAMILY, SAN MATEO. 

water, and feeding upon the reeds, that had been there four 
days ago. Our driver, unfortunately, spoke only his native 
idiom. In the forest, when in complete darkness, he stopped, 
unyoked the oxen, and uttered from time to time a long-drawn 
yell. Then there appeared out of the wood, as stealthily as a 
jaguar, a tall, absolutely naked man, who, together with the 
driver, began pulling the things out of the cart. This we 
resented furiously, and much tri-lingual talk was bandied to and 
fro, but without any effect, and the situation became unpleasant, 



A KERCHIEF MAP. 173 

until a third man appeared with a new cart and pair. It had 
all been pre-arranged by the Presidente, but unfortunately 
he had only mentioned it to Mateo, who was far ahead. 

At half -past ten in the night we united at Huilotepec, a 
Zapoteca village, and found all the officials with some torches 
waiting in their " town hall " to show us their famous " mapa 
lienzo," or kerchief map. They would not have done this 
without a special order from our friend the Prefect. At first 
sight it looked, in the badly-lighted room, like a dirty cotton 
towel, but these maps, of which only a few are still in existence 
(another is said to be at Juchitan), are most interesting 
documents. The people look upon them as a kind of charter 
of their municipalities, given to them by the early Spaniards. 
In the map various dyes were used to represent the course of 
the river from Tehuantepec to the sea ; the sandy bed of the 
stream being in yellow, and the rocks in black. The town, and 
the villages, were indicated by their hieroglyphs in Aztec, as, 
for instance, Huilotepec (dove-hill), which was a green hill 
with a blue bird on the top having its wings uplifted. There 
were also figures of people, squatting in rows, with their names 
written against each, both in Spanish and in ancient Zapotec, 
the writing being in Spanish characters. These are supposed 
to be the dignitaries of the places, the witnesses of the transac- 
tion. After we had admired this map long enough, they 
brought out a clean copy, an exact replica of the original, on 
a new piece of cloth. They were all most polite, but sedate 
and quiet. The Zapotecs did not care for the Huavi, would 
not even allow them into the house, and Mateo, the 
Mejicano, hated the Zapotecs, who cross-questioned him 
about many things, until he turned sulky. Yet, they would 
not allow us to depart until midnight, and there was nothing 
to eat or drink except the brackish water we had brought from 
San Mateo. By this time we were deadly tired, and tried to 
snatch what sleep we could in the cart, which went slower 
and slower, with frequent halts, as our driver slept soundly 
on his perch. Therefore he was made to walk, and I took his 
place, vigorously prodding the pair of fine bulls which, in the 
hot, close night, reeked abominably. The sun rose with more 



174 

than the usual glorious tints, when we crawled into Tehuan- 
tepec, dead beat, but the richer by several unforgetable 
experiences. 

Demetrio was pleased with the turtle, and arranged for a 
feast to take place at our inn, on account of its superior culinary 
facilities. He invited a friend or two, and we did the honours, 
so that the positions of host and guests were slightly mixed, 
and there were turtle soup, turtle steak, turtle eggs, and turtle 
something else at noon, at night, and the next day. Then we 
felt we had done our share, and yearned to recruit " at the 
seaside," amongst the luxuries of Salina Cruz, only thirteen 
miles by rail. Most hospitably received at the large and clean 
company's house, which stood on rising ground, overlooking 
the sea, we found it a veritable haven of rest, in spite of the 
incessant traffic of trains, and the heat, which ranged from 
77 F. at sunrise, to 95 F. in the shade. Although the room- 
temperature averaged from 88 to 90 F. until bed-time, it was 
mitigated by a strong breeze, either from the north or from the 
south, whilst at Tehuantepec there was scarcely a breath of 
wind. 




HIEROGLYPH HUILOTEPEC . 
" DOVE -HILL." 



CHAPTER IX. 

SALINA CRUZ AND JIGGERS. 

Salina Cruz and the Harbour Works The Jigger, or Sand-flea Bird and 
Reptile Life at the Coast. 

Until a few years ago Salina Cruz was justly feared as 
a deadly hole, where nearly every white man died within a 
year. The " old town," a wretched conglomeration of native 
huts, of palm-trees and reeds, stood on a narrow neck of low- 
land between the sea and an evil-smelling lagoon, surrounded 
by thick brushwood a fever-haunted place. Mr. Adam's first 
action was to clear away all this scrub, and, unfortunately, the 
few date-palms as well ; but he is a man of thoroughness. " It 
is better to be yearning for the sight of palms than dying in 
their shade from fever," is an apt rendering of the German 
saying, " Man wandelt nicht ungestraft unter Palmen." This 
clearing has had a great and most salubrious effect. All the 
offices and the houses for the white staff have been erected 
on the higher ground, and an entirely new town has been 
regularly laid out, and everywhere were rising pleasant, airy, 
slate-covered buildings. Another trouble was the water 
supply, the only available brook, and that intermittent, passing 
by the cemetery, which contained by far the largest number 
of white men in the district. All this has been changed, and 
an inexhaustible supply of water is now carried to Salina Cruz 
from above Tehuantepec, which town is also benefited thereby, 
thanks to General Diaz. 

The great harbour works were only commencing, and the 
future docks and quays were to be laid out on the site of the old 



176 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

village. They were busy with the construction of a great 
breakwater, at the temporary head of which stood a Titan 
crane. It was an ill-fated giant. Once when employed on 
the Vera Cruz breakwater it toppled into the sea, but was 
fished out again ; then it was conveyed across the Isthmus, 
and is now buried in deep water in the Pacific, beyond all 
chance of resurrection. This came about in the following 
way. Only a few days after our visit there was a sub- 
marine earthquake. A great tidal wave came in at noon, 
followed by others at a few hours' interval respectively, until 
in the evening the last wave, an enormous one, swept over 
the land, doing fearful damage, the whole of the old village 
being submerged and swept clean away. These same waves 
also caused great loss of life and property at the Huavi villages. 
We did not hear of the disaster at Salina Cruz, however, until 
we reached Oaxaca ; the previous accounts by the natives 
of some great disaster that had happened were all so garbled 
that nothing could be made of them. Even at Oaxaca it was 
difficult to make out what had actually taken place, comical 
misunderstandings having exaggerated the accounts in the 
newspapers. A Mexican engineer was most impressed by the 
reported loss of 7,000 " durmientes," which had been carried 
out to sea. " What are ' durmientes ' ? " asked an American. 
" Sleepers," said I. " Oh, I say, this is real awful," he went on, 
" fancy 7,000 of these poor devils thus being drowned over- 
night." The solution of the puzzle was that what we call 
sleepers (railway sleepers, of course), the Americans know as 
" ties," and, curiously enough, the Spanish term " durmientes," 
is an exact translation of " sleepers." 

Mr. Adam's staff consisted of about a dozen English 
engineers, who took a delight in the chance of talking about 
Old England, and about something besides railways, harbours, 
and accounts. One of these was a Cambridge man. The life 
of such men is a hard one in these out-of-the-way places, full 
of temptations, requiring great moral and physical strength. 
With work, hard work, all day long, in an unhealthy climate, 
incessantly worried by unwilling and careless natives, whose 
languages to them are as sealed books, they come in dazed 



177 

and tired to their meals, and turn in dead beat, to swelter 
with perspiration throughout the night. The abstemious 
man alone has a chance of keeping his health, and he is not 
happy, as he is liable to be considered a muff, which is, after 
all, but to be expected. He who cannot control his ever- 
present thirst is the first to fall a victim, and there are several 
diseases ready to carry him off. They reckoned that if out of 
a dozen but three should die within two years, it would be a 
fair average not to be complained of, and this is what actually 
did take place, amongst the victims being the University man. 
Spaniards have a saying that in tropical countries the three S's 
should be avoided " Sol, sereno, sayo," or " sun, chilly night, 
and petticoat " ; the Latin races, being characteristically 
abstemious, do not add the fourth S spirits which is, 
perhaps, the greatest danger to the northerners. 

The country round is thinly inhabited, and the difficulties 
in getting a large number of willing workers together was 
enormous ; this trouble alone seemed sufficient to drive any 
manager to despair. It was interesting to watch on the 
Saturday night the hundreds of " navvies," representatives 
of more than half-a-dozen tribes, crowding round the pay-office. 
Nearly all of them were natives of the hot countries, since 
those of the plateau, who are much better and steadier workers, 
are liable to die like flies on account of the climate. There 
were a number of negroes from the West Indies, amongst 
others some Martinicans, who had been dislodged by the 
earthquake. Being bound by a contract they had to work 
for lower wages, and thus caused discontent among the brown, 
free natives ; indeed, it became advisable to house them 
separately in some white-washed tin sheds surrounded by 
palisades. For the sake of peace and safety, a detachment 
of soldiery had been applied for and sent from Juchitan, and 
the first request of the officer in charge was to have strong 
blockhouses built, as the only means of preventing his soldiers 
from running away and marauding in the neighbourhood. 
To cap all, a detachment of rural police was summoned to look 
after the military. 

One can imagine the trouble of breaking in wild natives 



178 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

to the use of the white man's tools and implements ; for 
instance, to prevent them from taking the wheels off the barrows 
and using the barrows as stretchers, or from carrying these 
strange things on their backs. The wiry native can trot for 
hours and hours with a heavy stag slung at his back by a loop 
round his forehead, and he will load himself to staggering 
point, but the first day's pushing or wheeling will reduce him 
to utter misery. And if he is spoken to harshly, or laughed 
at, he gathers up his few things and is seen no more. A few 
Chinese had established themselves as cooks, store-keepers, 
and washers. They had made themselves nets, and were the 
only people who fished in the sea, a thing which the natives of 
the place had never done themselves. 

Amongst all this turmoil of blasting, ballast trains, making 
and laying of concrete blocks, shifting, digging, forging, and 
quarrying, interspersed with accidents and illness, Mr. Adam 
moved as commander-in-chief, praised by all the white men 
for his business capacities. Quiet, sparing of words, or silent 
almost to provocation, he was everywhere, saw everything, 
praised nothing, never swore, but ruled with the proverbial iron 
hand in a velvet glove. Frugal and abstemious, and the 
picture of health, he expected everybody to do and be likewise. 
The evenings spent at the charming house of our kind and 
delightful host are an agreeable reminiscence. 

The days were spent in prowling about. Seeing on the first 
morning some boys disporting themselves on the beach in the 
shallow water, I ran across half naked to join them in a swim, 
This, however, I did to my sorrow, their brown skins being 
sun-proof, whilst mine became so badly burnt, each drop of 
water acting as a lens, that for weeks after I suffered acutely. 

THE JIGGER. 

To avoid wet boots whilst wading about the lagoons and 
on the shore, I frequently went barefooted like the natives, 
although warned not to do so. One of the results was my 
personal acquaintance with the jigger, or sand-flea, two of which 
were discovered in my toes. Several others were, uninten- 
tionally, allowed to ripen until we arrived at Oaxaca ; during 



THE JIGGER 179 

our second journey they attacked me at the Balsas, and again 
near the coast. The experience thus gained was, although 
moderately unpleasant, certainly more interesting than hearsay, 
and forcibly drew my attention to this pest. This execrable 
beast is a flea, called " nigua " by the natives ; in English it 
is called " jigger," a modification of the South American 
" chique," or " chego " ; scientifically it parades as 
Dermatophilus, Sarcopsylla, Sarcophaga, or Rhynchoprion 
penetrans. Both sexes are of the size of a flea, of a pale whitish 
yellow, and affect sandy places, where they hop about in the 
dust and dirt, sucking blood like other fleas, and leading a 
roving life.* But the impregnated female becomes sedentary 
for the rest of her life, fixing upon and digging into the skin 
of its victim, whether dog, pig, cat, or man. Other kinds 
prefer bats, and at Aguafria squirrels were badly infested 
with them. Concerning man, the favourite spots are the toes, 
mostly near or under the nail. The creature digs itself in and 
gets underneath the skin, remaining with its hinder end just 
beneath the surface. At first nothing much happens beyond 
a slight inflammation and itching, and a feeling of fulness at 
the spot ; but on the fifth day the female has swollen to the 
size of a large hemp-seed, and increases to that of a small pea. 
Lying, as it does, beneath or within the skin, this is raised, and 
the whole thing looks much larger than it really is, especially 
when embedded in the soft skin of small mammals. This 
swelling of the female is mainly due to the development of her 
eggs, numbering perhaps a hundred, which cause the abdomen 
to become a globular bag. If left undisturbed, one egg after 
another assumes comparatively large dimensions, growing to the 
size and shape of that of a louse, and the ripe egg is squeezed out 
into the dust, where it turns into a maggot-like larva. These 
are plentiful in the huts, the floors of which are often made of 
a mixture of clay and cows' dung, an ideal feeding-ground for 
the cultivation of the larva, which ultimately transforms 
into a flea. Presumably, after some weeks, when the last egg 
has been expelled, the spent female dies, and is cast out by the 

* The first good account is by Karsten, " Bull. Soc. Imp., Moscow," 1864, 
PI. 2. See also " Zoolog.-Anzeiger," 1884, p. 673. 



180 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

skin in the process of renovating, unless and here comes the 
danger the wound has become inflamed by rubbing, and 
infected by dirt and other insects ; or, if, worse still, the whole 
bag has been injured or burst. Where one flea settles, the in- 
flamed region appears to attract others, and thus it comes to 
pass that the feet of some unfortunates present a shocking and 
deplorable sight, being completely honeycombed with the 
nests of this pest ; thus they become cripples for the rest of 
their own lives, and all the while spreading the pest among 
others. Careless and dirty habits are the chief cause. The 
vast majority of the people do not suffer much. They advise 
you to leave the creature alone for the first day or two, lest she 
dig herself in deeper and break off. But when it is once well 
established and swelling, a nimble-fingered woman will care- 
fully enlarge the hole with a needle or thorn, and, if all goes 
well, lift the whole of the yellow bag out. So far so good, but 
then the operator rubs into the wound a mixture of saliva, 
tobacco-juice, and ashes, by way of well-meant disinfection. 
My own personal trouble with sand-fleas caused quite a ridiculous 
alarm amongst the white community. Mateo, however, dug 
the creatures out, and a drop of carbolic acid, put into the hole 
with a paint-brush, settled the case for good, without any further 
annoyance. The same treatment was equally effective on later 
occasions, although we always managed to break the egg-bag. 
It is customary, when the feet are examined at the camp-fire, 
to hold the extracted bag in the flame, where it bursts with a 
little crackling explosion. At least, the clean Zapotecs consider 
it heinously bad manners not to burn the eggs, and thus to 
avoid spreading the plague. By the time Oaxaca was reached, 
two of the jiggers were already in full laying condition, and 
each of them, when operated upon, jerked out a full-sized egg. 
The sand-flea is a native of tropical America. The 
Spaniards soon found this out, and so did the Portuguese in 
Brazil. Their slave-ships introduced it to the west coast of 
Africa, where it was well established by the middle of the last 
century. There, upon the feet of the native carriers, it followed 
the ancient trade routes inland, and within the last few decades 
it has crossed the whole continent to the east coast, and has got 



BIRDS, SNAKES, AND LIZARDS 181 

even into Madagascar. British East African jiggers are not 
allowed to leave the country, for fear of introduction into 
India, where officially they are still unknown, but, unfortunately, 
there is nothing to prevent them from entering that country 

by way of Goa, which is a Portuguese possession. 

* * * * * 

All along the coast there are both large and small lagoons, 
some in communication with the sea and clean, others con- 
sisting of rain-water, full of evil-smelling mud and scrubby 
vegetation, inhabited by blue or white herons, large and 
small bitterns, curlews, stilts, and sandpipers. " Quebranta 
hueso," or fish-hawks, usually perched upon the branches of 
some fallen tree, " zopilotes " hopped about, and Quiscalus 
chattered in the reeds. Pelicans and cormorants skimmed 
along the breakers, and the graceful Tachypetes, or frigate-bird, 
floated aloft, though there were no gulls, terns, or ducks. All 
the birds were so unsuspicious, that they might have been 
knocked over with a stone ; they knew that nobody would 
take the trouble of molesting them. 

The reptiles on the sandy parts were a revelation, so far as 
their colour-patterns were concerned ; every kind, both 
lizards and snakes alike, were sharply marked with longitudinal 
stripes, whilst the crossbars and spots, so exclusively prevalent 
on the Atlantic side, were absent. There were the little 
swifts, Cnemidophorus deppei, with a greatly increased number 
of white stripes, and otherwise golden green above and dark 
blue below, running like a flash over the hot sand, and so hot 
themselves as to be quite disagreeable to the touch. The 
large C. immutabilis, most difficult to catch, since it makes for 
the roots between the shrubs, has fewer stripes in a state of 
incipient dissolution ; Conophis vittata, a snake, which is milky- 
white or yellowish, with a few dark brown or black longi- 
tudinal stripes, crawled about the rocks or in the houses, and 
the irascible Zamenis pulcherrimus was also common, the fore- 
part of its body dark brown with milky stripes, this pattern 
changing quite imperceptibly, a little further back, into the 
exact opposite, so that its long tail is of a milky yellow, with 
conspicuous dark stripes. One of these snakes was a monster 



182 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

of its kind, more than eight feet in length. Another, only five 
feet long, showed remarkable intelligence. At first he made 
for a large patch of ground covered with spiny tussocks, in 
the midst of which stood some low, tangled trees. Four times 
he attempted to break through in different directions, but was 
always headed off. We had almost given him up after a long 
search, when he was rediscovered climbing into a tree, where he 
stretched himself flat upon a branch, only, as often happens 
with reptiles, he forgot to hide his tail. Then he showed fight, 
and was secured. 

It was rightty remarked upon by those engineers here, who 
kept their eyes open for such things, that most of the snakes 
responded well to the coloration of the trees. Yet they are 
not really professional tree-snakes, but spend much of their 
time on the ground, and only occasionally ascend trees. These 
are mostly shrub-like, have no dense foliage, and the bark of 
their branches is generally quite smooth and of a pale brown. 
The smooth surface reflects the sunlight, so that such a branch 
frequently appears dark from below, whitish along the sides, 
and light brown on the top ; a Zamenis stretched along such 
a branch is in perfect harmony with its immediate environ- 
ment. No more need be said, except that the snake probably 
knows what it is about. 

The lizards which inhabited the shrubs further inland, were 
climbers, mostly arboreal, and frequenting, like the geckos, 
the rough-barked trees, while Sceloporus here was covered 
with rough scales, dark-coloured, and mottled. There were 
also iguanas (Ctenosaura) , the young and half -grown specimens 
of which were of a vivid green, and spent their time in hunting 
for insects in the green crowns of the shrubs. Not all of them, 
however, fitted their surroundings. On the big house lived 
a half -grown specimen, away from any vegetation ; its 
favourite place of observation was at the corner of the red- 
painted balcony, where its beautiful green was a most 
conspicuous object. But yet it knew what it was about. It 
lodged in a hole between the boards at the other end of the house, 
and reached this hole, when disturbed, by running along and 
beneath a suitable ledge, being thus all the while out of sight. 



VEGETATION 183 

After various attempts to catch it at its post, it became very 
wary, and ran away in the manner described, whilst at first it 
was satisfied with slipping round the corner. 

A little further inland the hills are covered with low growth 
of scrub character, while it is only dense here and there in the 
valleys. This scrub really consists of trees, but these, grow 
low and squat, spread widely, branch early, and each tries 
to make as much as possible of its own shade. They are 
mostly leguminous plants, as, for instance, Jacquinia, with 
its delicate pinnate leaves, acacias, and mimosas ; also a tree 
called " rabo de lagarto," or " lizard tail," from its bark being 
raised into low, thick conical points ; and some kind of 
Parmentieria, with a smooth brown stem freely furnished 
with long spikes. This abundance of spikes shows the 
prevalence of xerophilous vegetation. Climbers, epiphytes, 
and underwood are not tolerated by these umbrella-like trees, 
they themselves forming their own substitute for underwood ; 
indeed, only a tufted, grass-like, epiphytic tillandsia is common. 
On still drier places are many kinds of cactus, large and small, 
and a few opuntias. 

Another feature of this xerophilous flora is that the stems 
and branches of many shrubs either have a light brown bark, 
which peels like tissue paper, or a pale grey -green rind, 
containing chlorophyll, to enable the plants to live when the 
leaves are withered through drought. The ground is mostly 
sandy, with large and small boulders of light reddish porphyry 
cropping up, and on this ground lives Phrynosoma asio, the 
largest and most beautiful of " horned toads," coloured in 
soft tones of red and yellow, with blacks and browns exactly 
resembling the soil, and at the same time able to change its 
colours rapidly when well baked in the sun. Geckos and the 
tree Sceloporus make their abode on trees that have rough and 
darker bark. But among those creatures that live on the 
ground, red and yellow hues prevail ; as in the case, for 
instance, with Sphaerodactylus glaucus, a gecko, which, in its 
younger stage, has the head and thick little tail coloured 
orange ; while others have an orange-yellow throat and a pair 
of blue patches on the lower neck. 



184 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

The beds of the rivulets were dry, with here and there 
offensively-smelling puddles, tenanted by large and small 
water-beetles, while baby frogs and toads were swarming in the 
neighbourhood ; the adults, among them the common Rana 
halecina, and several kinds of Leptodactylus. were sitting in 
holes between the roots of the trees, wherever any moisture 
trickled out. Bufo marmoreus, by the way, was the only 




THE PACIFIC COAST WEST OF SAUNA CRUZ. 

amphibian which inhabited the dirty puddles in the old 
village. 

We also made an excursion westwards, to find out whether 
it was possible to follow the coast to Puerto Angel, and thence 
to strike due north to Oaxaca. No information about that 
side of the country was available, and the maps showing the 
lagoons are of no use whatever. Fortunately, we only spent one 
day there, to learn that some of the lagoons were connected 
with the sea, whilst at their shoreward ends they lost them- 
selves in scrub and swamp. A track is said to go further 
inland, parallel with the coast, but there is none leading thence 



RAIN AND DROUGHT 185 

to the north. To the west of Salina Cruz is a fine promontory, 
with a lighthouse, and the ridge further inland commands a 
fine view of the coast, showing what it is really like ; lagoon 
following lagoon, with dunes, scrub, and swamps, or abrupt red 
promontories jutting out into the ocean. 

This corner of the State of Oaxaca, round the Bay of 
Tehuantepec, is known to be rather dry, and the change of the 
aspect of the country east and west of the isthmus is striking. 
Whilst the rainfall at Coatzacoalcos amounts to about eight 
feet, at Salina Cruz a yearly return of only two feet has been 
registered. The State of Chiapas, again, is one of the rainiest 
of the whole country. One night we witnessed one of the 
grandest displays of sheet lightning which, reflected from the 
sea, showed up against the Sierra Madre, the coast range of 
Chiapas, at a distance of, perhaps, sixty miles across the gulf. 
A thick black bank of cloud stood at the far-distant horizon, 
almost incessantly lit up, though much too far off for us to 
hear any thunder. 

The rainy season of 1902 was a failure in this district. The 
rains had begun with great violence in June, but had then 
stopped, and even in the month of September only a few 
occasional showers were falling, which made no impression 
upon the dry, overheated ground. This irregular drought had 
serious effects, and the general look of the country began to 
resemble that which was said to be typical of the so-called 
winter, or dry season. There was a scarcity of Indian corn, 
the stalks and cobs being miserably small, and ripening too 
early ; many deciduous trees lost their scarcely-developed 
leaves, and began to bloom in accordance with their winter 
habit. The river at Tehuantepec had been falling steadily, 
and its sandbanks increased from day to day, while only now 
and then came down a little freshet, due to some moderate 
storm in the higher sierras. It was, therefore, rather surprising 
that our friends at Salina considered it impossible to travel to 
Oaxaca " right in the middle of the rainy season," on the 
assumption that the rivers and many brooks would be im- 
passible. At best we might have to be prepared to camp 
on the wrong side of a torrent until the water subsided, though 



186 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

if this were the case the journey might take many weeks. 
Two days were spent in packing and despatching a box con- 
taining our collections to be shipped from Coatzacoalcos, 
whence a steamer was to sail at a time which would be just 
convenient. As a matter of fact, the box did not catch that 
steamer, nor the next, and when it arrived at home it was found 
to contain nine inches of black, wet mud, -which had caused 
many of the contents to rot no doubt that box had been left 
for weeks standing in the open, to let the mud soak in, which 
could not otherwise have entered. However, the conveying 
of the box to the station at Tehuantepec, only a few hundred 
yards from our inn, cost a day's worry. Of half-a-dozen ox-carts 
standing there empty, which had been waiting at the station 
ever since sunrise for a train which did not come, not one 
could be induced to earn a peso by ten minutes' work. 
Loafers, who thought nothing of handling big loads, declared 
it was too heavy ; " Why not take it empty and repack it 
at the station ? " And when at last it was got there, Mateo 
had to sit on the top of it for three hours before it was 
officially received, and even then some ass of an official, who 
wanted " palm-oil " did his best to refuse it, until he was 
appeased, and had his scruples relieved as to whether the box 
might contain explosives, vanilla beans, or silver in bullion. 



CHAPTER X. 

A RIDE FROM TEHUANTEPEC TO OAXACA. 
(FROM TEHUANTEPEC TO SAN CARLOS.) 

The Ruins of Quiengola A new Drink Plentiful Bird-life Termites 
Tequesixtlan and the Chontal Tribe Collecting Rattlesnakes and the 
Evolution of the Rattle The Four-eyed Fish Weaver-birds' Nests 
Humming Birds An eventful Day San Bartolo and its jovial School- 
master The unfathomable Indian Mind San Carlos Yau tepee. 

Friend Demetrio rose to the occasion, and procured good 
horses, an ox-cart for the baggage, and a guard, and at sunrise 
we said good-bye to Tehuantepec, the Prefect himself accom- 
panying us for some hours, and presenting us at parting with 
the skin of an unusually large otter. Having forded the river, 
which was a simple matter, our party divided, owing to some 
misunderstood, although well intended, order of the Prefect, 
and whilst Mateo with the ox-cart and driver followed an easier 
road, we with the guard wanted to see something of the ruins 
of Quiengola. 

Within full view of the town, to the eastwards, is an isolated, 
flat-topped mountain, perhaps 2,000 feet high, covered with 
pines, and as they extend down a few hundred feet from the 
top, this " kopje " is about the southernmost and lowest point 
in the tropics where pines flourish ! The top is said to be a 
fortified camp, the best account of which was that which 
General Diaz himself gave me, when he heard that we had not 
ascended to it. He had examined it many years ago, and it was 
a delight to hear this old soldier describe its strategic value 
to the old Zapoteca king, who had there been besieged by the 
Aztec emperor, not many years before the Spanish conquest. 



188 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

After describing the ramparts, he told us how heaps of selected 
stones, "la municion " i.e., ammunition were still lying at 
certain places, ready to be hurled down upon the assailants. 
Many ruins of stone buildings, palaces, courts, and temples, 
and a watch-tower with bastions, still exist about a quarter 
of the way up, overlooking the extremely steep south-eastern 
side of the hill, above the river. A somewhat inspired sketch 
and restoration of the place has been designed and published 
by A. Estrada.* 

On the way to Jalapa the river had to be forded four times, 
though only on one occasion was it necessary to be careful. 




SKETCH MAP OF ROUTE FROM TEHTIANTEPEC TO OAXACA. 

The people at this large village, being all Zapoteca, were at 
first rather reluctant in their welcome, but installed us in their 
town hall. The afternoon was so frantically hot that we spent 
most of the time trying to get cool in the river, waiting for the 
baggage to come up. However, it did not come, and we had 
to prepare for the night. Slowly the authorities became more 
amenable, and even ordered a much-needed dinner. As this 
took them many hours, I asked for a little hot water for tea, 
but it did not come until, rather late in the night, after the 
dinner, four men staggered in, carrying in a net a huge earthen- 
ware cauldron full of chocolate-coloured hot water. They 
meant well, and apologised for having been so long about 
it. They had requisitioned the largest vessel in the village, 

* " Las Ruinas deLCerro de Quiengola. Memoriasdela Sociedad Cientifica 
'Antonio Alzate,'" Vol. VI., 1892, pp. 155-156, PI. Ill 



A PINEAPPLE DRINK 189 

and it had been difficult to bring it to the boiling point. 
However, we took a bath in that teapot. 

Some of the natives were as good-looking as those of 
Tehuantepec, and we made friends with a family, whose 
daughter, about seventeen years old, was the most perfectly- 
proportioned and handsome girl we had ever seen. The 
parents were peasants, and passionately fond of her, but, 
unfortunately, she was beginning to suffer from lung trouble ; 
she kept some little parrakeets as pets. These quiet, courteous 
people invited us to breakfast. Between their house and 
ours man showed himself at his worst. An ox was being 
butchered, and the meat, cut in long strips, was hung in 
festoons between the trees to dry, part of it being 
intended for our dinner. All this while another ox, tied to a 
tree, was forced to look on, making frantic efforts to get 
away from the blood-reeking spot. 

Pimentel, the guard, although a teetotaller, introduced me 
to a new drink, " tepache," which is made of the juice of 
crushed or scraped pineapples, kept in a covered earthenware 
vessel until it has fermented. In spite of the sugar, it contains 
very little alcohol only one or two per cent. and it would 
have been pleasanter if the reddish-yellow stuff had been cool, 
and the old jar, out of which it was ladled with a cup of cocoa- 
nut-shell, not so dirty. After a walk round the village, 
Pimentel suddenly inquired, " Mi patron, y como se siente su 
estomagito ? " " How does your little stomach feel, my 
patron ? " gently patting mine the while. " All right." " I 
wish mine did," said the man of the broken pledge. This 
guard had caused considerable consternation amongst our 
friends at Tehuantepec, when they heard that he was to take 
charge of us. He had the reputation of being a profligate 
desperado, who had committed nobody knew how many 
murders, and yet he had been chosen by the Prefect actually 
to guard his person, and had been now, as a special mark of 
courtesy, handed over to us. Well, the man did look a ruffian, 
although he was the best-dressed man in the town, and seemed 
to know a thing or two. He was vain and boastful to a 
degree, but was also full of resource, and most solicitous 



190 



THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 



about our welfare, so that I was sorry when we had to part 
with him. 

On the following forenoon we were the guests of an uncle 
of the Prefect, a retired colonel, who lived at his hacienda 




OUR PROTECTOR. 

half-way to Tequesixtlan. The lunch was characteristic. 
Two of his boys were sent up into palms to procure some green 
nuts, the " milk " to be stiffened with a little " aguardiente." 
Next came a pineapple, then beef garnished with fiery red- 
pepper pods, and eggs in various disguises fried in oil. Then, 
instead of a siesta, followed a ride in the noonday heat, in the 



ABUNDANT BIRD-LIFE 



191 



company of onr courteous host, to Tequesixtlan, where, to our 
mutual relief, Mateo was found waiting with the baggage. 
The whole ride from Jalapa was through very pretty country, 
following a depression between the low coast range and the 
next series of higher hills. The moisture in the ground, 




THE "CRESTED BEAUTY" (Colodtta /OrmOSd). 



oozing out from the foot-hills, ensured a permanently exuberant 
vegetation, and there was an abundance of bird-life. Long- 
tailed little parrakeets whirled about in swarms, and the short- 
tailed, yellow-headed " loros," climbed about in pairs ; while 
little inca doves and brown pigeons, grackles and Cassicus, 
hawks and weaver-birds, cormorants, white herons, black 
" zopilotes," and red-faced "auras " were also to be seen. The 



192 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

pretty long-tailed and delicately-tinted white and blue jays 
(Calocitta formosissima) , were great favourites, and watched 
us with curiosity from an overhanging branch, with their 
feathery topknot well curved forwards, and were so confiding 
that they whistled back when whistled to. Caracaras (Polyborus 
ckeriway), large birds of prey, prettily dressed in black-brown 
with yellow facings, the underside striped with dark and pale 
cross-bars, were another sight that never failed to give us 
amusement. They went about in pairs, and stopped still in 
the middle of the path, allowing us to approach within a few 
yards. Then they walked aside, and turning round to stare 
at us, put their heads well back, and uttered their shouts, of 
which the Spanish name " caracara " is not a bad rendering ; 
otherwise they are known by their Aztec name of " huiche," 
or " guiche." 

But if there is one sound more than another which conjures 
up to the full the delights and troubles of the Mexican tropics, 
of the really hot low-lands, it is that of the ubiquitous little 
doves, whose cooing sounds as hot as is the shade in which they 
sit, making love to each other. Their affectionate behaviour 
is really touching to behold. They spend most of their time 
on the ground in search of seeds, always in pairs. Then one 
flies on to a branch, to be followed within a few seconds by its 
mate, and then they kiss. They also are marvellously free 
from shyness. I have shot, with a pocket-pistol, within a few 
yards of a nest ; but it was only at the second shot that the 
bird flew off, and within a few minutes she was sitting again 
whilst I stood by, the nest being built in a low and open 
mimosa bush. 

TERMITES. 

Here we saw in the trees, for the first time in perfection, 
the huge nests of termites, or white ants, conspicuous and 
quaint-looking objects, that sometimes look like bee-hives 
stuck into the fork of a tree. They stand at a variable distance 
from the ground, but always upon the big branches, and form 
black-brown masses, irregular, but more or less globular in 
shape, sometimes measuring a yard in diameter, with a rough 
exterior, and containing innumerable cavities, in which the 



WORKERS IN THE DARK 193 

termites live and breed. The whole mass is entirely built up 
from the excrements of the creatures, which is ultimately 
composed of comminuted wood, and similar vegetable matter, 
cemented together by the secretion of their saliva. The whole 
thing is quite hard, and is always added to from the exterior. 
At its base several tunnels, made of the same hard, brown 
material, lead down to the stem of the tree into the ground, 
whence they may apparently be continued in any direction, 
whether to other trees without nests, or else far away to some 
dead timber. We found the tree-nests most frequent in the 
hot-lands of Southern Oaxaca, and again in the Balsas basin. 

There are various other kinds of " white ants," most of 
which have their colonies underground, and it is no exag- 
geration to say that, in many districts of this hot and warm 
region, there is scarcely a tree which is not visited by these 
little creatures, a little tunnel of cemented earth or woody fibre 
leading up the stem and then further along the branches. 
Unless the traveller breaks open one of these small tunnels 
and one is sure do so inadvertently by simply leaning against 
a tree, or grasping one of the branches he will not see any of 
these small blind white creatures, which look like degenerated 
ants. Since they never work in the open or expose themselves 
to daylight, but always build tunnels before them wherever 
they go, they are blind, and of a yellowish- white in colour. 
When they come to a suitable piece of wood they eat it up, 
and thus convey it away, always, however, carefully leaving 
the exterior intact, so that the log, box, piece of furniture, 
or anything that takes their fancy, is completely hollowed out, 
and collapses when touched, and yet appears to be perfect. 
Some termites take a fancy to the framed pictures hung up 
and left undisturbed in churches. These become queer-looking 
objects ; the inside of the glass, to enable the little creature 
to work in the dark, is pasted over with an opaque layer of 
cemented earth or wood, and the picture itself is gradually 
eaten up, together with the frame, the mere ghost of which, 
with the glass, is left firmly glued on to the wall. 

Many a time, when I have surveyed their tunnels on the trees, 
it has much puzzled me to understand the principle which guides 



194 

the termites in the positions they choose for the scene of their 
operations. The wetting of the rain does not hurt the tunnels 
at least, they do not collapse, although the walls often become 
soft and brittle. Sometimes they are so placed on the under- 
side of a sloping branch that the water is bound to run along 
them ; or they cross over to the upper side, or continue to run 
in a right or left direction in seemingly erratic fashion. At last a 
sudden storm brought the desired solution at least, a working 
hypothesis which seemed to stand the test : the tunnels are so 
placed that the tree and its branches are on the " weather " side 
of them, the storms in this country coming almost invariably 
from the same direction. Thus it comes to pass that the 
covered ways of these termites, although quite exposed and 
often in the run of the drip-water, are safeguarded against the 
actual beating of the drops. An exceptional storm does, of 
course, play havoc with these tunnels, and the termites are 
always mending their roads. 

Although they are usually called white ants, they have no 
relationship with the great fraternity of wasps, bees, and ants, 
though in their social arrangements they wonderfully resemble 
them. They have a queen who is the veritable and sole mother 
of the state, with princes, one of whom becomes consort. Only 
their royalty have two pairs of neuropterous wings, and with 
these they are allowed but a single flight, whereupon each 
princess selects a consort to found a new state, their wings 
drop off, and the pair never see daylight again, each queen 
growing to a preposterous size, immured in a large cell. Truly 
said Sancho Panza, " The ant has wings to her sorrow," since 
the flight is the opportunity of birds and lizards, who devour 
most of the wedding party. The bulk of the race, which in 
the case of termites is of both sexes, is from the cradle onward 
turned into sexless workers and soldiers by some process 
of feeding and treatment which is kept as a secret of state. 
The soldiers, easily distinguished by their large jaws, are able 
to bite, but so do the workers, and both seem to have some 
poison in their salivary glands. At any rate, they can become 
a terrible nuisance, since, apart from their bite and their poison, 
the skin is already irritable enough from other horrors for one 



BITING ANTS 195 

to wish to dispense with their tickling. I but once mustered 
courage to pry into a big tree-nest. On the whole we were 
wonderfully free from molestation by termites ; the real terrors 
being the ubiquitous ants ; of these the smallest kinds were 
the worst, leaving red, burning streaks upon the skin ; indeed, 
some of these little terrors seemed to be herding aphides upon 
the tall herbage, whence they conveniently got on to one's 
neck. The soldiers of some ants are of a preposterous size. 
One, who might have been, to judge from his size and that of 
his weapons, at least a captain in the guards, inspected my 
toes, and then, without any provocation on my part, walked 
over the foot until he came to the tender part of the skin above 
the ankle, where he deliberately bit me, and then, turning round, 
injected his genuine formic acid and jumped off. The spot 
soon became blue and swollen, and hurt horribly. Occasionally 
a native, sent up into a tree after some cluster of lovely orchids, 
will give a sudden yell, and come down like lightning, that* 
cluster being tenanted, perhaps garrisoned, by tiny, semi- 
transparent ants. 

* * * * 

Tequesixtlan is a large village, consisting of more than 
1,000 inhabitants, who belong to the Chontal tribe, hemmed 
in between Zapoteca and Mixteca, and number in all about 
10,000 people. Their affinities with other tribes are unknown, 
and their language, which most of them still speak, does not 
afford a clue. According to Belmar it has much in common 
with Nahoa, but, on the other hand, it seems to point to the 
great Zapoteca group of languages, and to our experienced 
ears sounded rather like Mazateca, which belongs to that same 
linguistic family. Chontal is the name given them by the 
Aztecs, in whose language Chontal is said to mean " strangers, 
outsiders," just the opposite of what " Nahoa " is supposed 
to mean. The majority seem to be tall, with long and almost 
straight nose, and with a thin beard on the chin and a 
moustache. The women wear the hair in two long plaits. 
The skin is mostly dark brown. 

The village stands on rising ground, and has a very large 
square ; most of the houses are built of sun-dried bricks, are 

o2 



196 



THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 



whitewashed, and roofed with tiles ; those away from the plaza 
are more frequently thatched. At one end stands the 
" Ayuntamiento," or municipal building, at the other the 
" curato," and the school. As the " curato " happened to be 
empty and situated on the outskirts of the village, we took 
possession of it, or rather, of its broad and well- tiled verandah. 




BELL TOWER, TEQUESIXTLAN. 

which commanded a wild and pretty view. There is also a large 
and well-built church of a peculiar design, which was kept in ex- 
cellent order. The bells are hung in a separate shed. The people 
are entirely agricultural, cultivating maize and beans ; they 
keep but a limited number of cattle, just enough for ploughing 
and carting, but have no special industry. 

We applied to the authorities for a man to keep watch over 
our things upon the open verandah during our frequent 



NOT THE CUSTOM TO THIEVE 197 

absences ; the request was willingly conceded, but caused 
some astonishment. When it was bluntly explained that we 
did not want to lose any of our possessions, the answer was 
that there were no thieves amongst them. " How is that ? 
Why not ? " " Porque no es costumbre ! " " Because it is 
not the custom ! " And this is one of the admirable traits of 
the unspoiled natives of Southern Mexico ; they do not steal, 
and neither in any of the villages, nor when encamped near them, 
have we lost a single article, at least, not in the whole State of 
Oaxaca. 

The schoolmaster, a Zapotec, who was an energetic fellow, 
declared a public holiday, and sent the boys out to search for 
creatures, the height of their joyful excitement being reached 
when he, with some thirty boys, accompanied us to the lovely 
river to fish. Mateo had still a few cartridges left, and let them 
off in the deeper pools ; then the boys formed a cordon lower 
down, and thus retrieved most of the stunned fishes as they 
were carried down by the current. Next they arranged a 
sort of battue, driving the fish on to a sandbank or into a bay, 
where they dived for them. They did get some, and occasion- 
ally came up with a fish in their mouths, pretending to have 
caught them thus. 

This district, from Salina Cruz to Tequesixtlan, was the 
only place where we found Ctenosaura quinquecarinata, a sand- 
coloured iguanid, only a foot in length, and with a tail beset 
with short spikes set in whorls. These creatures bear a strong 
resemblance to the Indian Uromastix, and behave much in the 
same manner. They do not climb, live on a mixed diet of 
insects, leaves and flowers, are very gentle and easily tamed. 
When ensconced in its lair, this lizard defends itself by side- 
strokes of its tail. Rattlesnakes, in the open places, attained 
to a considerable size ; for instance, one specimen measured 
120 cm., or 47 inches, an unusual length for Crotalus terrificiis. 
This creature had a miserable rattle, composed of only three 
joints, but the tail was so curiously marked with half-a-dozen 
black bars, that these of themselves almost suggested a rattle. 
Of course this was a coincidence, and this race of snakes is 
liable to have such a black-marked tail, but the matter was 



198 



THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 



striking enough for Mateo to remark, " Faltan los cascabeles 
pero tiene formula" "the rattle is wanting, but it has the 
diagram thereof ! " 

A full-grown, shrill-sounding rattle, composed of a dozen 
bells, is one of the most perfect instruments of warning, and 
looks like an instance of elaborate design, yet its evolution 
can be traced to insignificant, very different, beginnings, without 
any mystery about them. Not a few animals use the tip of 
their tail for attracting the attention of their prey, or of their 
enemies, towards that extremity i.e., away from the head. 
The same principle underlies many dodges practised by man, 




THE USE OF A VIBRATING TAIL. 
Death-adder fixing the attention of its prey. 

in fencing, in setting up a dummy, or in the fluttering, brightly 
coloured pennant of the lancer, which is not put upon his 
lance for the sake of ornament, but because it is sure to fix the 
attention of the assailed, while the deadly spike is reaching a 
foot further, and is being driven home. Some geckos, when 
cornered, wriggle their tail-end in a curious fashion, glad, if 
pounced upon, to escape with the loss of that member, which 
will grow again in due time. 

In some snakes the tail-end is thin and tapering, and hence 
unusually mobile ; moreover, this part is often coloured differ- 
ently from the thicker portion of the tail, the chance of its 
being seen when held up and vibrated to and fro being thus 
increased. For instance, the arboreal pit-viper of India is 
grass-green, but has the end of the tail of a bright red. The 



DEATH - ADDERS 



199 



next stage shows peculiar structural modifications, as in the 
Australian death-adder (Acanthophis antarctica), the last 
inch of the tail being laterally compressed and very slender, 
beset with a few rows of enlarged, imbricated scales, and ter- 
minating in a thin, horny, thorn-like spike. The apparatus 
is reddish in colour, and looks not unlike a wisp of flowering 




EVOLUTION OF THE RATTLE. 

A. End of tail of an Australian Death-adder. (Acanthopis antarctica.) 

B. End of tail of a young Rattlesnake (side view). 

C. A complete link or joint of an adult rattle (side view). 

D. Tail of an adult Rattlesnake with a rattle of three links (side view). The 

fourth joint, broken off, is indicated by dotted lines ; although loose, it 
is held in position by two constrictions which grasp two corresponding 
swellings of the third " bell." 

E. Diagram showing how the youngest " bell" is pushed into the next oldest. 

grass, most likely to attract the attention of small animals, 
when the snake, already coiled up, slightly raises and vibrates 
the tip of his tail. Then comes another stage a new de- 
parture of a feature already foreshadowed in its earliest 
beginnings, by the frequent occurrence of a short, thorn-like tip, 
the thorn being, of course, made out of the thickened epiderm. 
Normally, this horny spike should be shed at every moult, 
together with the rest of the skin, and its place should be taken 



200 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

by a precisely similar spike-shaped cap, which has grown up 
from beneath and within it. But if that cap should be stronger 
and more knobbly than usual, there is a chance that it may 
not slough off so easily, but stick on for a time, even though 
it may be ultimately pushed off by the newly-grown cap. 
But if this process should be prolonged and extended over a 
period of several moults, there would be left a series of dry, 
hollow, horny caps, which could not help rattling. This would 
be an accidental and unpremeditated result, which natural 
selection might then pass judgment upon and improve. 

In Mexico itself we have all the above theoretical stages 
represented by some pit- viper or other. As the first stage 
there is nothing remarkable about the tail of the water- viper. 
Next we have the dreaded Lachesis, or " fer de lance," with a 
tapering, wriggly tail ; in some this is coloured iron-grey to 
black, such a snake being called " palanca," which, in Spanish, 
means " crowbar," practically the same as the French term ; 
or the tail is yellow, and looks like a piece of sharpened bone, 
these specimens being known as " rabos de hueso," or " bone- 
tails." On the higher mountains lives the small Crotalus 
triseriatus, which, for a long period during its younger stages, 
has an incipient rattle. Lastly, there are the various kinds of 
" viboras con cascabeles," with perfect rattles. 

A modification, once well started, is liable to over- 
development, as in the case of tusked teeth, claws, horns, 
and antlers, some of which have quite outgrown their useful- 
ness. In the case of these snakes, the rattles break off, mostly 
somewhere in the middle of the series of bells, but sometimes 
near the base, when the reptile finds itself suddenly left with a 
stumpy, silent appendix, with only a few chinks in it, and has 
to wait for several moults until the rattle is again in working 
order. 

A large, well-conditioned rattle can make a shrill noise like 
an alarum-clock, and so loud that when its owner is confined 
in a room, it makes conversation well-nigh impossible. The 
rattle grows with its broader sides arranged vertically, not 
horizontally. The snakes rattle only when coiled up, with the 
tail-tip standing up erect in the centre ; whilst gliding away 



DANGER OF SNAKE-BITE 201 

they are mute. There cannot be the slightest doubt (although 
there are theorists who have a horror of allowing the use of the 
reason to animals) that the rattle acts most efficiently as a 
warning, and is now intentionally used for this purpose. It 
is not only man that takes notice of it ; horses and dogs are 
most susceptible, and, according to the natives, so also are 
stags, but these latter are said to trample these snakes to death, 
while the peccaries hunt them up and eat them. The best 
rattlers are the most phlegmatic ; they know their own strong 
points, but give fair warning to be left alone, in order to avoid 
accidents which might be regretted by both parties, aggressor 
and defender. On the other hand, those which are mute, 
like the " palanca," are highly irascible, they will attack an in- 
truder without further provocation, and are justly feared. 

However, it is surprising to find how very few mortal 
accidents happen from snake-bite, either to cattle, or horses, or 
man cases of the latter are confined mostly to inquisitive 
boys. Perhaps this is due to the fact that these snakes 
do not visit the huts, but generally do all they can to get out 
of the way. The average visitor to the country will probably 
never see a snake, and he may even travel for weeks, and con- 
clude that snakes are rare. But after a few months of a life 
of varied incidents e.g., when he has seen them in the morning 
coming out of or retreating into the walls of the house, or, 
in accordance with their kind, beneath the water-tub in the 
kitchen, the palm-thatched roof of the hut, the log he may have 
chosen for his seat, or upon his path he will concede that there 
are plenty of them, far too many, indeed, for his taste. But 
the fact is that snakes are not obtrusive ; they are of a morose 
and retiring nature, and trust to not being seen in a dress which 
so well harmonises with their favourite surroundings, or else 
they retreat in good time, since they have both good eyesight 
and keen powers of hearing, and easily perceive the footfall of 
man, a rustle in the grass, or the cracking of a twig. If many 
are to be seen, they have to be looked for by someone who is 
in sympathy with their habits. We managed to collect forty- 
four different kinds, comprising several hundred specimens, 
but it was hard work, and, after all, this formed only about 



202 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

forty-five per cent, of all the species which may be reasonably 
considered to exist in the States visited by us. 

Not being aware of the natives of Tequesixtlan being 
Chontals, and to convey better to the boys and men some idea 
of the creatures that I wanted, I gave the Aztec and Zapotec 
names, which I had learned with some trouble. These w r ere 
laughed to scorn, but the work of preserving, drawing, and 
making notes about the spoils afforded a good opportunity for 
a little instruction in Chontal. These people had a separate 
name for every kind of fish and lizard. Unfortunately, the. 
Alcalde and the boys did not always agree, and such discrepan- 
cies often occurred elsewhere, so that one should be very wary in 
taking down the vernacular names. A few may as well be 
given here ; every name is pronounced with the accent on the 
last syllable : 

Small lizards in general are called " s-pala " ; the green 
iguana, " wish-ta " ; the black iguana, " sta ". Large lizards in 
general, " candimolo. 

Snakes in general, " nio-far," w r ith the " r " almost 
inaudible ; the pit- viper that has no rattle, viz., Lachesis, is 
called " mangi-nja " ; whilst for the rattlesnake they professed 
not to have a special name, though this seems almost in- 
credible. 

Toad is " tahue " ; frog, " rana," and this they at once 
pointed out as Spanish. 

Of fishes a large siluroid (Pimelodus guatemalensis) was 
called " mur-chuii " by the boys, but " ssi-tou " by the Alcalde ; 
" barbudo " in Spanish. 

Sicydium multipunctatum, with the ventral fins transformed 
into a sucker, was called " camochin-bano " by the boys, 
" morchoii " by the Alcalde. This proved to be a new species. 

Philypnus maculatus, a gobioid, with projecting lower jaw, 
had as its native name " chokako " ; " trompudo " in Spanish. 

Cichlosoma aureum, a cichloid, had for its native name 
" tzili " ; " mucharra " in Spanish. 

Agonostomus monticola, a silvery- white, large mullet, had as 
its native name " ssa-pana" ; its Spanish name is " trucha," 
i.e., trout. 



THE FOUR-EYED FISH 203 

Tetragonopterus ceneus, a characinid, is the " liba " of the 
natives ; " sardina " in Spanish. 

Poecilia sphenops, a tiny cyprinodont, bright blue with red 
spots, was " bof-tuii " ; " tripon " in Spanish. 

Anableps dowei, a cyprinodont, the " four-eyed fish." 

In Spanish this fish is known as " quatro-ojo " ; the 
Zapotecs call it likewise " four-eye," " tapa-iyaloo," and hence 
has arisen at Tehuantepec the curious hybrid word " tapa-ojo," 
literally " cover-eye," which also gives good sense. The 
Chontals at Tequesixtlan know it as " palgan-divi " (" divi " 
= eye), but I could not find out the meaning of " palgan," 
except that it does not mean " four." 

Anatomically, the modifications of this fish's eye are easy 
enough to understand.* The iris, instead of forming the 
usual circular curtain, is produced into two flaps which freely 
overlap each other, so as to form horizontal bars across the pupil, 
which is thereby divided into a lower, roughly triangular, 
and an upper, elliptical, cavity. Corresponding to this broad 
bridge, which is movable, so that the overlapping flaps can 
alter the shape of the pupil, there is a slight modification of 
the cornea in the shape of a grey and reddish pigmented band, 
and this projects slightly on the inner side of the cornea. The 
lens is pear-shaped, and thus the thicker, larger, and less curved 
portion fits into the upper pupil, while the lower part of the 
lens is smaller, and also more convex. Consequently, it stands 
to reason that the light which passes through the lower pupil 
is received by a stronger lens, which thus counteracts the 
greater refraction of the water. The fish has indeed a double 
pair of spectacles, one for seeing at a distance and in the air, 
the other for close work in the water ! 

So far as I know, none of those who have described this 
wonderful apparatus have ever watched a live Anableps. The 
whole of the eyeball, which protrudes considerably on the 
upper side of the head, is as freely movable as any ball-and- 
socket joint. It can be turned in almost any direction, the fish 
looking, in the same manner as a chameleon, up and down, 

* Meckel, "Archiv. f. Physiol.," IV., 1818, p. 124. Valenciennes, " Cuv. 
et Val. Hist. Poissons," XVIII., Pis. 538 and 539. 








Andbleps dowei, THE FOUR-EYED FISH. 

I. Using the lower half of the eye. 
II. Using the upper half of the eye. 

III. Seen from above, upper half in use. 

IV. Iiis and divided pupil, outside view. 

V. Iris dividing the pupil, as seen from inside. 



WONDERFUL EYES 205 

or forwards and backwards. When the eye is turned com- 
pletely up, all the white of the upper half of the cornea 
disappears ; again, it can be turned down so far that the upper 
pupil looks quite horizontal, and then the lower apparatus 
altogether disappears within the socket. When swimming, 
the fish incessantly moves its eyes, which, when near the 
surface, protrude above it, the white of the cornea shining 
conspicuously, a sure sign that only the upper, or air-eye, is 
then in use. When the fish was below the surface this play of 
the eyes could, of course, not be observed, owing to the generally 
turbid condition of the water. But we kept specimens for 
many hours in basins, or in glass jars, and then the lower half 
of the eyes was mostly used. 

These fishes have rather curious habits. They congregate 
in schools of a dozen, or even of several scores, in the more 
quiet bays near the river banks, preferably below a sandbank, 
or at the edge of backwater eddies, where scum and flotsam 
collect, upon which they feed. Favourite resting-places of 
theirs are quiet shallows, where they lie, apparently resting 
upon their stout fore-fins, with their knob-like eyes alone 
above the surface. They are shy, rapidly scuttling or half- 
hopping away into deeper water, where they form up abreast 
in platoons, swimming up-stream, propelled by the tail, with 
the fore-half of the body raised, and some even jumping up ; 
but they are always anxious to quit the rushing of the stream, 
and, after a few minutes, return to their favourite anchorage, 
where they also seem to spend the night. Like many of the 
Mexican freshwater fishes, they are viviparous, and although 
a large female rarely reaches ten inches in length, the ripe young, 
from a few in number to a dozen, are two inches long. In the 
male the excretory and sexual passage is continued into a long 
perforated cone, which is covered with scales, is directed back- 
wards, and carries the much-reduced anal fin with it on its 
dorsal side.* 

Dowe's Anableps is restricted to the low-lands, through the 
whole of Central America, from Panama to the Isthmus of 

* Wyman, " Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist.," 1857, p. 432. Garman, 
Mem. Mus. Cornp. Zool.," Cambridge, Mass., XIX., 1895, No. 1. 



206 



THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 



Tehuantepec, both on the Atlantic and on the Pacific side. 
The largest specimens that we saw were in the San Juan river ; 
many smaller ones were in that of Tehuantepec and its tri- 
butaries. In South America they are represented by another 
species, A. tetrophthalmus. 

Life was quite pleasant as viewed from the verandah of 
the " curato," although it was hot, the shade-temperature in 
the north rising to 90 F. at 9 a.m., and being only one or two 
degrees lower at 8 p.m. ; even before sunrise it stood at 79 F., 
but a north wind sprang up regularly at about 9 a.m., dying 




VIEW FROM THE CURATO, TEQUESIXTLAN. 

down after sunset, or continuing well into the night. This 
breeze, combined with the very dry air, made existence quite 
tolerable, only the sun was very fierce. Soon after sunrise 
a flock of " zopilotes," which used to sleep in a tree near the 
house, hopped on to the ground and spread out their wings for a 
thorough baking in the sun, although there was no dew. They 
also took a bath in the river, where they searched for dead fish, 
molluscs, and worms. In the same tree were a number of 
long pendent nests of weavers, or hangnests (Icterus). 

On various occasions, here in Oaxaca, and again in Guerrero, 
these birds gave proof of their mental power in adaptation. 



WEAVER-BIRDS' NESTS 



207 



Their object is to suspend the nest from such a thin and long 
branch that it cannot easily be reached by tree-snakes and 
opossums. Therefore, what can be better than the telegraph 
wire, which goes in a bee-line across the country ? Now, most 
of such nests were fastened in a peculiar way : instead of being 




KESTS OF MEXICAN ORIOLE. 

A. Usual mode of suspension. 

B. Section through the nest. E. Entrance ; N. Nest. 

C. Mode of suspension from telegraph wire, with 

D. The timber hitch for fastening a grassy fibre on to a branch. 

suspended from one point, several plaited or twisted side- 
strands were thrown out from the main rope, and slung round 
the wire so as to make the base very broad, and thus to secure 
a better hold upon the wire, a hold firm enough to prevent the 
nest from being blown along the wire, or shifting its position ; 
moreover, the nests were slung at long distances from the poles, 
thus affording absolute safety. This had by no means become 



208 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

the prevailing fashion, but we saw about a dozen nests thus 
fixed in various districts. 

Humming-birds were also plentiful. Although they may 
be met with anywhere in Mexico, from the sea almost to the 
upper limit of the tree-line, to an altitude of 13,000 feet or 
beyond, they are local, absent in thick forests, and prefer a 
varied terrain and the neighbourhood of water. They 
often take a bath, ducking themselves right under water to get 
a thorough wetting. Here at Tequesixtlan some long-billed 
species used to hover over the river catching flies, then perched 
on a favourite branch, darted into the air to snatch an insect, 
and perched again. They are rather quarrelsome, tilting at 
each other in the air, and they attack other birds, much larger 
than themselves, in the same manner. Apparently, although 
wary they are quite fearless, and this is the outcome of their 
marvellous wing-power, these lovely creatures flying like 
swifts, to which they are closely related, or, again, like wasps 
and moths. Some of our hawkmoths bear, indeed, a striking 
resemblance to the smaller humming-birds, when they seem 
to stand immovably in mid-air in front of the long calyx of 
a flower, whilst, instead of their wings, all that is visible is a 
transparent blur. Again, they shoot suddenly either towards 
right or left, just visiting perhaps a neighbouring flower, and 
returning within a second or two to the first flower, unless they 
are off altogether, when the glittering little beauty with its 
metallic colours changing prismatically according to the direction 
of the light and the position of the spectator may, perhaps, 
next be seen sitting motionless on a branch, with its straight bill 
pointing upwards. It is during these sudden side-long darts that 
some of their species, not all, emit a short but rather loud noise, 
sounding like " oom," a fact which has given them their English 
name. The Mexicans call them " colibri," like the French 
and Germans, or " chupa-flor," " chupa-mirto," " chupa- 
rosa," "chupa-miel " i.e., flower, or honey-sucker or "pajaro- 
mosca," " fly-bird." The Aztec name is " huitzilin," i.e., 
the " spikelet." * The mask of this bird was an important 

* Or " huitzitzilin " = spike-humming. " Huitz-tlacuache " is the spiny 
tree-porcupine (Synethcres mexicanus). 



HUMMING-BIRDS 209 

attribute of the principal deity, the god of war, and chief patron 
of the Aztec tribe, Huitzilopochtli, which means the humming- 
bird of the left, or south. The god was always pictured in a 
mask of this kind, with a human face peeping out of the bird's 
chest. 

Humming-birds are still, in various parts of the country 
where Aztecs live, prized as powerful charms. To gain the 
affection of one's chosen lady it is sufficient to carry a dried 
bird in the folds of his sash. The metallic feathers are much 
used for the exquisitely beautiful and well-finished feather-work 
designs which still form a lingering industry, especially in 
the larger towns, where the outlined birds, heraldic, and other 
designs are eagerly bought by the tourist. A whole bird, 
either large or small, complete from bill to toe, and with even 
the branches and leaves upon which it rests, is made up from 
carefully selected feathers, and fastened on to cardboard, and 
these mementoes are everlasting, if framed and kept safe from 
insects. 

The nest is a delicate little cup, fastened on to a horizontal 
branch, and covered outside with lichen ; the bulk of it is 
woven from fine, silky, vegetable fibres, and within it two white 
eggs are laid. The young look almost exactly like those of swifts 
and swallows, including their widely-gaping, short, flat bill, 
which assumes its long and pointed shape much later. The 
females are much more sombre in hue than their mates, but 
by no means all the species possess beautiful colours. 
Humming-birds constitute an altogether Pan-American grouj 
of birds, being absolutely restricted to the New World and its 
islands, and at the same time ranging, during the summer in 
each respective locality, from Canada to Patagonia. More 
than four hundred species are known, and these are of almost 
endless variety in shape and colour of plumage, some with 
short and square, others with long forked tails, some with 
feathery crests, or with white puffs on the legs ; with short bills 
or enormously long ones, even surpassing in length the entire 
remainder of the body and tail. From the evolutionist's point 
of view they are glorified and specialized swifts, adapted to 
hover in front of flowers from which they extract the tiny insects 



210 



THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 



upon which they live. The length of their bill stands in direct 
co-relation with the kind of flowers which are their specific 
favourites ; those which visit long trumpet -shaped flowers 
have the longest bills, and many kinds are said to be absolutely 
dependent upon certain flowers, perhaps 
because these are inhabited by certain 
kinds of insects. Consequently, these 
flowers have produced humming-birds to 
fit themselves, and possibly their visitors 
benefit the hosts in turn by acting as 
fertilizers. Not only is their pointed, 
slender bill always rather long, but their 
tongue also, and this can be protruded 
like that of a woodpecker, although not 
so far, the hyoid horns being so long 
that they curve from behind round the 
whole head, the tips ending loosely 
beneath the skin near the nostrils. The 
tongue proper is short, but its horny 
covering is elongated into a pair of thin 
blades, which throughout their length are 
curled up, so as to form two parallel 
hollow tubes. Their use is not quite 
evident. Obviously, narrow tubes would 
be meant for sucking honey from the 
flowers, but these birds do not live on 

TONGUE OF A LONG- this nectar > and their stomachs are always 
BILLED HUMMING- filled with insects. Their tongue finds 
an almost exact counterpart in that of 
the sunbirds of the Old World, which 
are likewise insectivorous, a remarkable 
instance of convergent analogy. Probably 
the long sheaths of such tongues are used for dislodging 
the insects in the depth of the flower, whereupon they 
are caught by the bill, which in many humming-birds has 
slightly serrated edges. The tongue-tubes are narrow enough 
to suck up fluid by capillary attraction, so that the nectar may 
well ascend, and perhaps the birds drink in some such manner. 



oe> 



HUMMING- 
BIRD. 

The circles on the side 

represent sections. 

(k Nat. Size). 



JAGUAR OR OX 211 

The keeping of humming-birds in captivity has hitherto always 
failed through their starvation. 

On the first night, when not yet familiar with our immediate 
surroundings, we came near committing a dreadful and foolish 
act. The dogs of the village had been restless and fell to 
fighting in the shrubs, and there followed a sound like that of 
crunching bones, with deep sniffing and growling. " Don Juan, 
el tigre esta comiendo a un perro ! " But it was not a jaguar 
eating a dog. Just in time, whilst trying to get a sight with 
the rifle, some doubt misgave me ; the two gleaming eyes under 
the bush were so far asunder in fact they were as wide apart 
as they usually are in an ox which is chewing the cud ! 

The cura arrived at the week-end, but would not allow 
himself to be drawn into talking about the customs and beliefs of 
the natives, he being supposed to have eradicated all that ; but 
he was not in sympathy with them, nor they with him, and he 
knew less about them than the Zapoteca schoolmaster. Other- 
wise he was very affable, and over some wine, which Mateo had 
procured from the shop, to mitigate his partial eviction from 
his own verandah (which, however, belonged to the muni- 
cipality), he confided to me that a friend of his suffered from 
pimples on her face, and asked if this could not be remedied. 
He did not seem to like my chaff, and made some remark about 
heretics to whom nothing was holy. 

A very stout wealthy native lady came to pay us a visit, 
and it was my good luck to be able to relieve her of some of 
her troubles. Next day she sent her servant to report her 
convalescence, with a basketful of choice fruit. This little 
incident would not be worth mentioning if it did not illustrate 
the marked difference in the behaviour of the people of the 
State of Oaxaca and that of Guerrero. Naturally, we gave 
freely of our stock of medicines, and rendered whatever help 
we felt justified in doing. Here in the State of Oaxaca, without 
exception, the natives wanted to pay us, and since this, of course, 
was always refused, they usually managed to get even with us 
by means of some invariably acceptable offering. In Guerrero 
they first enquired about the cost, and rarely, though this was 
not without exceptions, showed any gratitude. 



212 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

The day of our departure from Tequesixtlan was full of 
little incidents. Horses and mules had been procured without 
difficulty, and we went merrily along what was still a tolerable 
track. At a brook, which possessed pools of beautiful water 
between the volcanic rocks, we waited for the baggage to come 
up, and my horse, hitherto so lazy, ran away. Fortunately 
he scattered everything about ; kodak and knapsack, a calabash 
with live lizards, and a piece of the lasso indicated the trail 
for a while, but next came a swamp with ever so many bittern 
looking up at the intruders, and then the river broke up into a 
network of channels and islands, which put an end to the chase. 

Meanwhile my wife had prepared lunch, but said she did 
not like the spot, on account of a queer noise close to the zarape 
which she had spread out as a tablecloth. This proved to be 
somehow due to a snake entwined between the plants, which 
refused to be dislodged, and retreated under a ledge of the bank 
of the stream. Thence it made several counter attacks, 
coming half out of its cave with head and neck erect, and 
driving me off, so that I just missed those lively coils several 
times in succession. At last it darted out as straight as a lance, 
and tried to run away, when by a lucky fluke a bullet broke its 
back. It was a Coluber corais, a few inches more than eight 
feet long, and as thick as a man's arm. Then the origin of the 
noise became clear. This snake, closely allied to the black 
racer of the United States, Coluber, or Pityophis melanoleucus, 
has a peculiarly modified epiglottis, which is set in vibration 
by means of the air expelled from the large lungs, making 
an almost voice-like noise, very different from the usual 
hissing of snakes. As some of these Pityophis are of a bold 
and fierce disposition, this sound is perhaps made for the 
purpose of intimidation. 

The muleteers were sent after the runaway horse, Mateo 
was to wait for them, and we went on to a little place called 
Las Vacas. It consists of only a few scattered houses in a 
prettily situated valley with plenty of cattle, whence its name 
" the cows." The people were friendly, but had nothing 
whatever to give besides tortillas and " jilotes," or corncobs, 
and as they did not like taking in such a strange couple, whose 



TROUBLES WITH MULES 213 

possessions consisted of next to nothing, we had to make the 
most of one zarape, and to camp in the middle of the meadows 
well away from the village. It was a sultry, hot night, and the 
ground was warm, but there was a plague of insects on this 
cattle-haunted spot, and then it rained. Mateo came in 
shortly before midnight with half the baggage, the mule with 
the tent having broken down, and the runaway horse not having 
been found. Therefore back again we went with the empty 
beasts to bring in the straggler, which had toppled into a brook, 
strewing about the bundles, of which several had to be 
given up as lost. 

In the morning one of the remaining mules was gone, and 
this made the second mule, of which no more was seen by our 
party. It had not been a night of rest, and then came a long 
and exhausting ride, with a few short pauses, until, at sunset, 
a suitable camping-ground was found near a deserted house 
on the other side of San Bartolo. The scenery all through 
this long day was beautiful, the track leading over grand, 
mountainous country. It was a district full of the columnar 
cactus, with oak woods higher up, and, lastly, pines ; but 
although the views from the ridges were fine and the air at an 
elevation of from 2,000 to 3,000 feet was exhilarating, though 
hot, the reaching of each ridge only implied another descent, 
and there seemed to be no end to them, as they appeared one 
piled upon the other, till lost in the shimmering distance. 
Except for a forlorn hamlet or two, there was no human settle- 
ment all along that ride, and the only people met with were a 
string of muleteers with cargoes of apples, which they were 
bringing down from the plateau to the coast. 

On the bark of an oak-tree sat the most curious-looking 
object imaginable, a white fluffy thing, like a little bunch of 
cotton attached to a reddish body, which dodged to the other 
side of the tree. Within a few minutes after it had been put 
into a tube with alcohol, all the long white fluff dissolved 
away, and all that was left was a reddish insect, the rare 
Phenax mexicana, a member of the Fulgoridce, whose fluffy 
excrescences all over its body, and streamers several inches in 
length, are said to consist of some waxy matter. 



214 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

San Bartolo is a large village, and the people, perhaps a 
mixture of Chontal and Misteca, do not like strangers, be they 
white or brown. There is a " meson " i.e., a subsidised house 
where shelter has to be given to the wayfarer, and the people 
are in the habit of taking prepared meals thither, not allowing 
the so-called guests to enter their own houses. Nor did we 
succeed in getting more than a glimpse of the inside of that of 
the head-man, a very determined little fellow who suffered from 
St. Vitus' dance. He offered the " meson," as he was bound 
to do, and as that was declined with thanks he took us to the 
outskirts, to a spot where there were two empty houses, the 
inhabitants of which had recently died, and informed us that 
Dur neighbours, not far off, were " gente de razon," " people 
of reason " i.e., no longer savages, for whose good behaviour 
he would stand responsible. 

There the tent was put up, and we took a day's rest, but in 
spite of the elevation of some 2,500 feet it was frantically hot 
and stuffy. Although Mateo and I prowled about most 
of the day, scarcely a creature was to be seen. The people, 
with their independent nature, seemed to have their muni- 
cipality on the brain. About a dozen of them were always 
sitting and lolling under the verandah of the town hall, on the 
pillars of which were hanging the wands of office, each with a 
leather strap through a hole at the top end, and every stick 
different from the rest. Everyone who went, or was sent on 
an errand, first selected one of these sticks as the symbol of his 
authority, and they insisted on this custom so much that a 
man, despatched to fetch someone who was supposed to 
know a good deal about animals, would not leave without the 
stick appropriate to the occasion. These wands of office are 
an institution of the early Spaniards in various parts of Mexico, 
and every year the " stick-giving " day is a solemn occasion, 
corresponding with the appointment of the various municipal 
officers by the Prefect of the district, to whose seat they are 
compelled to repair. These wands are sacred, and some of them 
are of great age. In the town hall are suspended long lists of 
the names of all holders of office and their substitutes, from the 
President of the municipality of several villages, the alcalde, 




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A CURIOUS COMPLAINT 217 

"" regidor," or justice of peace of a village, the syndic, or 
chairman, and the vice-chairman, down to the dozen members 
of the local council, and even their police and messengers. All 
this was in a village inhabited by none but pure natives, few 
of whom speak Spanish, and who have the reputation, as the 
Prefect of Tehuantepec told me, of being frantically idolatrous, 
though outwardly, of course, good Christians. 

They flatly denied having ever heard of, or seen, ancient 
pots and clay-figures, though, as a matter of fact, on the eastern 
rim of the valley, at a considerable height above the village, 
stand the ruins of an old Zapoteca fort, with big stone walls, 
well constructed, and mortared like those of Quiengola, where 
the people still search for such idols, but these are either buried 
again, or adopted and guarded jealously. The schoolmaster, 
who was, as usual, a Zapotec, had been educated in Oaxaca, 
was a reasonable fellow, and took an interest in things around 
him, but he had to be careful, and would have been less com- 
municative if he had not been so fond of a little conviviality. 
This was easily arranged, since his sprightly wife was managing 
the best shop. The " maestro " had a quaint sort of humour, 
and he explained that, filling a position of dignity as the only 
learned person in the village, he felt it incumbent upon himself 
to entertain strangers, but that he suffered from an illness 
which sometimes interfered badly with his duties. The 
symptoms were great sickness of stomach, headache, and 
disinclination to work, always coming on over night when least 
expected, after he had been as jolly as any. Could I diagnose 
the malady, and did I know a remedy ? " Oh, yes ; it's a 
well-known complaint that is sporadic in every country, and 
goes by many names, such as, for instance "hot coppers," and 
" katzen-jammer," which terms, when explained, he thought 
described the symptoms very well. " But do you know a remedy, 
or, better still, a medicine or a diet which will prevent it ? " 
" Yes, one that is absolutely infallible : ' no beberes ' ! Thou 
shalt not drink ! " "I have told you that a hundred times," 
said his wife, and we had the laugh of him, but he went on 
expostulating that he never did get drunk, and that was the 
worst of it ; if he did, like other fellows, he would not have 



218 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

asked me ; but for a man in his position, who went to bed all 
right, to wake up ill in the morning, that was quite another 
matter. 

This man had constructed and neatly drawn a map of the 
road from Jalapa to Totolapan, which I jojtfully copied as a 
valuable guide. Unfortunately it was drawn with a sort of 
perspective, a foreshortening of the distances towards the 
north ; yet it was more correct than were the printed maps 
it had been our bad luck to have to trust to. He also helped 
us by trying to persuade the people to catch a Heloderma, or 
'' gila monster," or at least to show us the spots where it might 
be found. I held an assembly at the blacksmith's, showed 
them the coloured drawings of the creatures wanted, and some 
of them were recognised. However, we could not penetrate 
the curious labyrinths of the Indian mind. " How much will 
you pay for one ? " " Two pesos." " Good gracious, what 
can be the use of a beast which is only worth killing ? " "To 
make medicine of." " What for ? Can you cure dropsy with 
it ? " The obvious answer was : " ' Quien sabe ' I have 
to study the beast before I can tell ; we have none of them in 
our country." " He is right," said one ; " there may be strong 
medicine in so poisonous a beast, but how would that benefit 
us after you have left ? " ' You, or anyone else, will benefit 
to the extent of two pesos if you bring one here." " I should 
not touch it, it is dreadfully dangerous, and if you crush it 
with a stone and the blood squirts out you are a dead man." 
"Never mind us, locate one, and we will fetch him ourselves. 
Do you think you could find one for two pesos ? " " Certainly ; 
I know where they are ; when my father . . . ." At last the 
man was willing to spend a day in hunting for this particular 
snark at two pesos, and turned to fetch his " machete." A few 
minutes later he hurried back ; " Sir, I shall not go ; if I do 
not find one, what then ? " Such negotiations were enough to 
drive one mad. None of the company excepting the school- 
master, and maybe the Presidente, who said that it was none 
of his business could grasp the distinctions between the 
three possibilities, that of getting money down for a beast 
produced, and of money for searching with, or without, result. 



THE INDIAN MIND 219 

Moreover, if an Indian does not want to give an answer, his 
facial expression is unchanged, and remains either smiling or 
sullen as the case may be, but his eyes become as glassy as in 
the moment of death, a film passes over them, and no white 
man can tell whether there is a soul behind it. 

Mexicans divide the Indians into " gente de razon " reason- 
able people, who can or are willing to understand another's 
thoughts, and those who are " cerrados " " locked up " in 
their own thoughts, unmanageable, unapproachable. The 
distinction is good, the expression " gente de razon " is still 
better. The distressing feature of not being able to entertain 
two thoughts at a time is not peculiar to them. Amongst 
ourselves we, too, have many monkey-eyed people whose 
reasoning snaps if it is applied to a chain of argument. They 
revert to their first thought, with the same serene calmness 
as the Indians do to their single thought, the only difference 
being that our white brethren may run to the length of three 
links in the chain before breaking down, while the Indian stops 
at the second. It is not always unwillingness or laziness, it 
is want of capacity. As a glimpse into the working of another 
person's mind is always interesting, let us have some more 
examples which are, likewise, not fictitious. It was on this 
same high road, between Oaxaca and the coast, where caravans 
go up and down daily. A small pedlar with only a single 
donkey-load of apples would not sell that load, or even half of 
it, before he reached his goal at Tehuantepec, the advantage of 
continuing with a lighter load would not be grasped. At San 
Carlos we got into a difficulty about hiring animals, and it so 
happened that two strings of carriers, with empty pack-saddles, 
overtook us, and they also were bound for Oaxaca. Would 
they take our baggage ? No, they were returning to Oaxaca 
for a new cargo. Were they pressed for time ? No. Did they 
never take cargo up to that town ? Certainly ; but only 
from Tehuantepec where, as on this occasion, they did not 
happen to get any. 

Perhaps it was the beauty of the morning and the profusion 
of ferns and flowers on the moist banks of a shady ravine beyond 
San Bartolo, where a narrow belt of limestone caused a change 



220 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

in the porphyritic formation, that made us feel happier in our 
minds, but a succession of stumbling rides of seven or eight 
hours on bad horses and bad saddles, and with nothing to eat, 
is apt to become monotonous. Water fit to drink was not 
always easy to get ; there were diseases about in the villages, 
and often the water had an alkaline taste. It was necessary 
to drink much and often in this hot and dry air, which was so 
dry that the incessant perspiration evaporated at once, 
deceiving us as to the continuous loss of fluid that we ex- 
perienced. Boiled water alone is nauseous when taken luke- 
warm ; very weak tea with sugar and some of Horlick's milk- 
powder was better, but liable to turn sour before the afternoon ; 
thin coffee treated in the same way behaved similarly, and was 
too heating. On our second expedition through tropical 
Guerrero, water flavoured with the rind of the very aromatic 
small wild lemon with a little of its acid juice, and sweetened 
when taken, was by far the best refreshment during the 
march. 

We hired eight mules for as many pesos, including three 
natives, who were considered necessary by the authorities. 
Again, at about 3,300 feet of elevation the first oak-trees were 
encountered, and at 3,800 feet they became regular forests, 
mixed with the long-leaved pines and a sprinkling of arbutus 
trees, whilst cassias and jacquinias fell behind, showing that 
we were passing out of the tropics. Lizards were plentiful, 
and the size of Sceloporus horridus was remarkable, several 
specimens of the kind being regular giants of at least ten inches 
in length, but, in spite of our efforts, these large creatures always 
escaped, and we were anxious to get to San Carlos. This is a 
" town," the seat of the district called San Carlos Yautepec. 
For the sake of preserving complete independence we camped 
a mile above the town, on the road-side. The Prefect, in spite 
of our official letter from the Governor, and the friendly note 
from his colleague in Tehuantepec, proved a failure, as he was 
too busily engaged in deciding upon the pattern of a paper-cap 
that was to be worn by his guard on the approaching national 
anniversary. In his office was displayed the usual information 
that the sole idiom spoken was Castellano ; this was strictly 



MEASURING DISTANCE 221 

true when those were left out who spoke only the " serrano " 
dialect of their native tongue. Then there was the usual list, 
professing to give in leagues the distance of every village from 
the seat of the Prefect. None of these are correct, and some- 
times the explanation is added that the leagues are " buenas," 
or " chicas," full-grown or still young, as the case may be. 
That the total of a long distance does not tally with the details 
given does not matter. " These are the official distances as 
laid down by the municipality, and you won't arrive a day 
sooner in Oaxaca by altering them." The ascertaining of 
distances, difficult everywhere, was a sore trial all along this 
high-road of commerce. The people in the villages, of course, 
had their practical notions, although expressed neither in hours 
nor leagues, but the answers of anyone met on the road were 
hopeless. None of them intended to deceive : they simply 
could not express it. " Esta cerca " " it is near by," in- 
variably meant a long way, sometimes as much as three hours' 
march, whilst " muy lejos " " very far," once happened to 
be round the corner, within a mile ; " todavia falta algo " 
" it still wants some," could not be found fault with as being 
strictly true; but " un pedazo " " a step," was bad, and 
" un pedacito,"- *' a nice little step," was usually worse. Poor 
Mateo declared they were mad, and suffering from swollen 
heads : " Don Juan, when these Popolocos have learned how 
to read and write a little, they think themselves better than 
their betters." Popoloco is the Indian name of a still backward 
tribe to the west of Motzorongo, and it was his favourite 
term for such as he did not like ; moreover, " loco " being the 
Spanish for " mad," the resemblance in sound tickled his 
fancy. 

At an eating-shop of San Carlos were easily picked out two 
pale, thin, unhealthy-looking fellows, very different from the 
usual Mexicans. They were Catalans on a walking tour from 
Mexico City, to take photographs for a publishing firm in 
Barcelona, and they were bound for Buenos Ayres, which they 
hoped to reach in about two years ! It seemed to be the 
scheme of some Pan-Hispano- American propaganda. What 
unique scenes these courageous fellows might take and send 



222 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

home ; but fancy entrusting therewith a couple of uneducated 
men ! They brought the bad news that in the village further 
north small-pox was raging. 

The " Presidente municipal," whose business it was to 
procure the necessary animals for our party, according to em- 
phatic orders from the .Governor, returned such a haughty 
answer through Mateo that we decided to give him a lesson. 
It was a silly thing to do, but our pot of patience boiled over, 
and it cost us four hours' hard work of storming and threatening. 
But it did good for the next stage or two. The usual cost of 
hire of an animal, be it saddle-horse or pack-mule, is one peso 
per day, regardless of the distance ; the "arriero," who walks on 
foot, is included in the price, and so is the food for himself 
and his animals ; no charge is made for the return, and if any 
such attempt is made it is simple imposture. Thus the eight 
animals, with two men from San Carlos to Totolapan, cost 
sixteen pesos, the official distance being fourteen leagues, 
about forty miles, or two days' march. Since then " arrieros" 
are expected to find the food and fodder, most of the money 
should not be paid until the end of the journey. Sometimes 
payment in advance is insisted upon by the authorities, and 
in that case the " arrieros " start without a centavo, and the 
traveller will find that he has to keep them and the animals. 

The repeated hiring was by far the greatest worry during 
the whole journey from the coast to the plateau. It is easy, 
almost everywhere, to get one or two serviceable saddle-horses 
for a day or two, but the trouble assumes alarming proportions 
when more than half-a-dozen animals are required. No single 
person possesses such a number, and the people, out of sheer 
cussedness, and in order to show their independence, refuse to 
let them out ; moreover, each owner insists upon sending his 
ow r n man with his beasts, not trusting another, so that six 
pack animals may, in complicated cases, mean as many 
followers. The village authorities are bound to respect the 
governmental order to procure the men and beasts, but if 
he feels so inclined the head-man tells you that there 
are none ; or that some happen to be away on pasture ; 
anyhow, that they cannot be got together until the day after 



MULE HIRING 223 

to-morrow, and if you insist upon having your half-a-dozen 
mules ready by to-morrow they will be ready, but one of 
them will be a broken-down horse, another will be a similar 
beast with sores too terrible to behold, and a third will be a 
donkey. This assortment will be sent to your camp, but with- 
out any pack-saddles, without which they are useless, and if then 
you walk into the village and at last find the chief, to storm and 
to threaten, he calmly says that lie told you yesterday that they 
would not be ready before to-morrow. These men were not 
all like this ; some few were good, others a great deal worse. 
An additional difficulty in our case was that it was not possible 
to hire the whole outfit for the whole distance, and, partly 
owing to the variety of tribes, they refused going beyond their 
districts. Having to travel with eight animals and two or 
three followers, all of whom had ultimately to be fed out of our 
own pocket, especially if one decides that the march should 
stop for a day or two at some attractive spot, it becomes rather 
expensive, the whole bill easily amounting to a pound per day. 
For a longer journey it is, therefore, more economical to buy the 
animals outright, and to sell them again. They are cheap on 
the plateau, and worth much more on the coast. The horses 
which are bred on the airy highlands stand the tropics pretty 
well, for a time, but do not produce any good offspring, and 
these, too, when transferred to the plateau, are susceptible 
to chills, and have trouble with their wind. 






CHAPTER XI. 

FROM SAN CARLOS YATJTEPEC TO THE SOUTHERN PLATEAU. 

A District smitten with Small-pox Dismal Camp The Cactus Family 

Totolapan Idolatry and Native Beliefs Interesting Pedlars Character of 

the Edge of the Plateau. 

The next stages from San Carlos were terrible, since in nearly 
all the villages and hamlets along the track there raged small- 
pox of the virulent black and confluent kind. It is no exag- 
geration to say that people were dying on the roadside. The 
huts in this somewhat poor district were loosely, and often 
carelessly, constructed reed shanties. Outside some of these, 
in the little court-like enclosures, we saw lying on the ground 
both men and women, some in the shade, others left in the 
glaring sun, in the last stage of the disease, with their relations 
squatting round them in dumb despair. This had been going 
on for several weeks ; naturally some had recovered at 
least, many of those that we met were in the peeling stage but 
many huts were deserted, the reed-curtains used as doors 
being left open and aslant. The entire population of one village 
was said to have been exterminated, with the exception of a 
little girl who was found there, and who, when rescued, was 
quite prostrate by starvation. Yet there had been no stampede, 
the people stoically waiting for what was going to happen ; 
in some villages they had had a few sporadic cases, and after 
the victims of these had died, the remainder were left in peace. 
It was uncanny to have to spend two days in such a district, 
and heartrending to have to look on at this misery, and to have 
to prevent our party from entering into intercourse with the 
stricken population. Of course, we had been re- vaccinated, 



SMALL - POX 225 

we always are, with the result that the hungriest of small-pox 
bacilli cannot find anything to live upon in our bodies, but it 
was gruesome to see how the infection was carried about. 
What a suitable place that village of the dead would have been 
for an indignation meeting of our anti- vaccination cranks ! 
It was an unusually bad outbreak of small-pox, which occurs 
everywhere in the country to a moderate extent ; many people 
in Mexico are marked, and they are not, as a rule, afraid of it. 
A few days later, in Oaxaca, Mateo happened to get a letter 




SMALL-POX. DESERTED HOUSE. 



from his wife, complaining that the children were ill. He 
calmly shrugged his shoulders and said : " Maria need not make 
such a fuss ; I am sure it is that small-pox, everybody gets it 
sooner or later, and there is no epidemic in my own district " ; 
he knowing well that the disease, where already established, 
is usually of a mild character, but that the " outbursts " are 
of a dangerous type. By the way, small-pox was introduced 
originally by Cortez's soldiers. The governments of the States 
provide for vaccination, and a few thousand individuals are 
annually reported to as having been successfully vaccinated, but 
that does not concern the overwhelming majority ; for in cases 



226 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

where the native is asked to pay, he refuses, whilst what is 
offered free of charge he does not value. To get hold of the 
people in the remoter districts, who will not even submit to a 
regular census, would be as easy as tying a bell to a jaguar's 
tail, and about as pleasant to the operator. 

It was not easy to find a suitable camping-ground, as the 
plateau, which was of more than 3,000 feet elevation, was 
covered with rough lava, or strewn with porphyritic rubble, 
and was without water ; we should have preferred camping 
away from the track, and even from human habitations, but 
the only place available was on the shoulder of the plateau, 
at the edge of a deep ravine. Here, near the only well, and 
close to a solitary hut, where everybody had camped before, 
we had to stop. Fortunately, I was curious enough to inspect 
the well myself ; it was the most stinking waterhole imaginable, 
swarming with insect larva?, tadpoles, and algae, and with a 
strong mineral taste, so nauseous that one could not drink it 
even in tea, but only in strong coffee, which kept the whole 
company sleepless. The animals and the " arrieros " fared worse, 
as neither food nor fodder was to be had in this stricken 
district. The ground was strewn with flakes of opal, whole 
veins of which existed in the neighbourhood. In Mexico, 
especially in the capital, the cutting and setting of opal ornaments 
forms quite an industry, but the best Mexican worked stones 
are imported from the Old World, to supply the considerable 
demand by tourists for genuine mementoes. 

THE CACTUS FAMILY. 

The descent to the bottom of the ravine was made by a 
zig-zag path, so steep and precipitous at many points that it 
is a marvel how heavy loads can be taken up the five hundred 
and odd feet of the ascent. The steep slopes of the winding 
ravine were covered mostly with thousands and thousands of 
some kind of columnar cactus, related to the species which is 
aptly named senilis, on account of the white fluffy bunches of 
hair which cover the top of the plants, many of which were 
thirty feet high. The branching organ cactus grew on the 
ledges ; on less steep slopes these were mixed with opuntias, 



CACTI OF MANY KINDS 227 

the globular cactus, and thin, rope-like kinds. It was a 
land of cactus as well as of spiny mimosas. 

Whilst the agaves intrude themselves upon the sight of the 
traveller, chiefly through the medium of the cultivated maguey 
fields, he need not be long in Mexico before he finds out that 
the plants most characteristic of the country are those of the 
cactus family. More than one thousand different kinds have 
been described, all exclusively American, but their greatest 
abundance and variety is reached on the table-lands of Mexico. 
Cacti, of some form or other, are sure to attract attentior 
whether in the shape of enormous candelabras, of solitary 
columns or pillars, such as those which in thousands cover the 
mountain slopes and precipices ; of globes, varying from the size 
of a marble to that of the huge cushions strewn invitingly over 
the arid and stony plain ; or of the rope-like " snake-cactus," 
entwined around or between the rocks, and even suspended 
from the trees. Wherever it is hopelessly dry and arid, some 
kind or kinds of cactus are sure to flourish ; but there are also 
in the savannahs many cacti of tree-like growth, forming the 
centre of a tangle composed of many other plants, the whole 
clump looking as if it owed its existence to the central figure. 
Even in the dense forests itself cacti are not absent, and if 
the place is too moist the Cereus not only climbs into a tree, but 
grows upon it ; once rooted in the bark it hangs downward 
like a cluster of dark-green ropes. The blooms are mostly 
of a fiery red or yellow, and without scent, while those of the 
night-flowering kinds attract moths by their pure white colour 
and delicious perfume ; some of these blooms are diminutive, 
and almost insignificant, others are of gigantic proportions ; 
some plants produce but one bloom each, others, like the 
Cereus giganteus, are covered with thousands of flowers, a sight 
not easily forgotten. The hard wood of the dead plant, 
looking like the remnants of a crushed basket, is used as fire- 
wood ; the fruit of others is sold for food at every market. 
Every household singly, and whole villages jointly, are sur- 
rounded by an impenetrable fence of some kind of columnar 
cactus, and even where none are actually visible, one has but 
to take a rest to be unpleasantly reminded of their former 



228 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

presence by some spike or thorn, perhaps some three inches in 
length, straight, smooth, and hard as a needle, or curved and 
hooked like a claw, or so small and transparent as to be almost 
invisible, but making up for this shortcoming by tiny barbs 
which drive the irritating spicule deeper and deeper into the 
-kin. I was told in Arizona that it was quite sufficient to 
Remove a prisoner's boots to prevent him from escaping over- 
light, since no man who set any value on the use of his feet 
tvould venture to take the risk of a barefooted run across a 
cactus country. 

We did not take to these plants ; Mexico provided 
nough in the way of irritating sensations without them, and 
we admired their strange features with our hands so 
to speak, " behind the back." Still, this plant-family is full 
)f fascinating interest, because of its wonderful adaptation to 
ihe peculiar circumstances under which its representatives 
live, and they have if we may be allowed to personify them 
either invented or hit upon dodges which have been carried 
far beyond the stage of actual necessity. They are " over- 
doing it " from a purely utilitarian point of view, and the 
new-fangled and somewhat mystical term coined to express 
this fact is " hypertely." 

These plants have no leaves ; the necessary chlorophyll 
is stowed away in the green rind of the stem and the branches 
instead. Water is stored in the interior in specially constructed 
tissues. All the leaves are transformed into spikes and thorns 
or hairs. To increase the surface area, both stem and branches 
are often crenelated, forming longitudinal ridges, and upon 
these ridges the thorns are so arranged that those of neigh- 
bouring ridges point across the intervening depressions, and 
thus defend the softer, unarmed, portions. Thus armed, and 
supplied, a typical desert cactus will flourish in arid, sunburnt 
places where drought is the prevailing feature, and where it 
rains normally but a few days during the whole year. A globe, 
or melon-shaped cactus is, of course, quite unassailable, though 
even the less formidable, but much taller, tree-like plants are 
also quite unclimbable. They are shunned by man and beast ; 
at T east, I have never seen a large lizard on any of them, let 



FORBIDDING PLANTS 



231 



alone a mammal ; but the ground beneath the clumps or hedges 
of opuntias is a favourite place of refuge to many kinds of 
creatures, which seem to know well that they cannot be followed 
into their spiky retreat. Humming-birds often visit the 
flowers, but these are short-lived. During the greater part 
of the year there is nothing to be got either out of or from a 
cactus, not even by insects, the absence of which is a further 
inducement to the lizards to leave these plants alone. Even 
the termites, which build their covered roads up and down 
well-nigh every tree, but seldom make use of these forbidding 
plants. Only on? creature likes them, viz., the woodpecker, 




VEGETATION IN THE SOUTHERN SIERRA. 



which, by a stroke of genius, hammers out its habitation in 
the tall columns of the organ cactus. These look so soft and 
succulent that one wonders how their top-heavy growth 
can withstand a storm. But you may rock such a column 
of fifteen or twenty feet in length to and fro, and it will sway 
backwards and forwards without ever snapping off. Beneath 
the rind are about a dozen thick strands of woody fibre, some 
of the thickness of a finger, much interlaced or communicating 
with their neighbours, and of a surprising density and hardness ; 



232 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

this framework, like that of a basket, surrounds a softer, pithy 
core. When the woodpecker has drilled his hole through this 
framework, the enlargement of the nest is a comparatively 
easy matter. Old stems assume a brown, rugose appearance, 
and a considerable amount of oxalate of lime is deposited in 
the tissue, this being in such quantity and so hard that it blunts 
the axe, and in stems which have been partly destroyed by fire 
the white mineral appears amongst the ashes in regular 
lumps. 

Undoubtedly, the cactus plants are well " defended," and 
from this point of view they make a pretty illustration of the 
fitness of Nature's operations ; but it may well be asked who 
are the possible enemies against whom these armaments of 
barbs, hooks, and spikes have been constructed. It is quite 
true that the flat, thick, and uncouth branches of the opuntia 
for instance, contain much water, and that cattle eat them 
greedily. In some parts of the Northern States the people cut 
the branches down and rub off most of the spikes to assist the 
half -frantic, starving, and thirsty beasts ; asses and horses 
are said to paw with their forefeet at the globe cactus in order 
to get at the moisture from the under-side, but cattle and 
horses, sheep and goats, were all introduced by the Spaniards, 
and none of the indigenous vegetable-feeders of the plateau, such 
as stags, squirrels, hares, and mice, can claim to have helped in 
the evolution of these plants. Are we reduced for an ex- 
planation to go back to the extinct fauna ? More likely it is 
one of those cases in which imagination has run away from 
a more sober and matter-of-fact judgment. It is, no doubt, the 
case that the conditions prevailing on a high table-land of this 
kind, subject to prolonged drought, a fierce sun, great and 
quickly-succeeding changes of temperature, and dust-storms, 
have produced the characteristics of this family of plants 
without regard to the animals. Leaves are known under 
similar conditions to turn partially or entirely into thorns, and 
if these, in the nature of things, prove to be less edible to, and 
even a defence against, the existing fauna, that is an incidental 
advantage to the plant, as much so as the certain, though 
unrecorded, fact that the first Spanish donkey must have 



PRICKLY PEARS 233 

found himself completely nonplussed by the first Echinocactus 
that he was rash enough to tackle. 

But not all the members of the large cactus family live on 
arid lands. The huge candelabra cacti are often found in a 
jungle, whilst other kinds live in marshes, or at least, as, for 
instance, at San Mateo del Mar, in places where their roots 
stand in permanent moisture ; others, again, as mentioned 
before, are climbers, and have even turned epiphytes. Still, 
the more arid the locality the more spiny are the plants, and 
many of those which climb are almost harmless, not because 
they live out of harm's reach, but because the atmospheric 
conditions that cause spinosity are absent ; in these cases, there- 
fore, the whole leaf is gone, and even its representative, the 
spine ; and it almost amounts to an axiom that an organ once 
lost or materially degenerated cannot be re-developed. 

Besides planting cacti as fences, man has found no further 
use for any of them, except that the fruit of some kinds is 
eaten, notably the " Indian figs," or " prickly pears " of the 
Opuntia ficus indica, the " nopal " of the natives. The fruit 
is called " tuna." There are yellow and red sorts, with a 
similarly-coloured flesh. They are daily brought to the market, 
and are deprived of the clusters of little prickles by rubbing. 
The proper way to enjoy their agreeably tasting pulp is 
to peel off the somewhat leathery skin, and to soak the fruit 
for some time in water, whereupon it acquires a surprising 
freshness. But after the enjoyment follows the inevitable 
regret, since, in spite of every care in manipulating them, some 
of the tiny prickles are sure to have got between one's fingers, 
where they cause an extremely irritating sensation. 

In some districts the " tunas " form an important portion of 
the people's diet in the summer and autumn. A disagreeable, 
incidental effect of the blood-coloured pulp, mixed with the 
numerous indigestible seeds, is then to be seen in the lanes, 
at the roadsides, and other approaches of an Indian village, 
suggesting to the uninitiated observer a universal outburst of 

dysentery amongst the inhabitants. 

* * * * 

The track for many miles followed the valley of the river, 



234 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

mostly dry and without any signs of cultivation, until this little 
tributary emerged upon the broader valley of the Totolapan, 
or Tehuan tepee river. " How far was it still to Totolapan ? " 
" Four leagues " (a dozen miles), was the crushing answer, 
but fortunately the Zapotec really meant to say a " fourth of 
a league," as within half-an-hour our goal was reached. 

Here the land was under proper cultivation, with carefully 
irrigated fields and plantations of maize, sugar, plantains, 
and bananas. In the neighbourhood were several small silver 
mines. Fortunately, the village of Totolapan had nearly done 
with the small-pox, and things looked more cheerful in spite 
of a belated case here and there, these being aggravated by 
dysentery and fever. It was not healthy, and the people 
attributed this shortcoming to the unusually dry season and 
the fitful rains. On the day after our arrival the whole neigh- 
bourhood looked parched, but on the following morning the 
broad and flat valley, which had before been intersected with 
many water channels and sandbanks, was one expanse of 
turbid water which, before the day was over, had covered the 
ground with a chocolate-brown ooze, very fertile, though 
unhealthy. Negotiations with the natives were easy in this 
fairly well-built village ; the Presidente even accompanied 
us on a little shooting tour, and boys and men showed them- 
selves willing to collect, so that more than a dozen different 
kinds of amphibia and reptiles were brought together ; but 
this small collection was sufficient to show that here in this 
valley, at the foot of the southern edge of the central plateau, 
most of the tropical creatures were dropping out, while some 
that were native to the north had descended ; obviously this 
was the case with Scaphiopus dugesi, the spadefoot toad. 
The Cnemidophorus lizards proved of the greatest interest, 
and it was on this long ascent from the tropics to the plateau, 
having followed practically for the whole way the Tehuantepec 
river, that my eyes were opened to the changes of these lizards. 
The little, sharply-striped C. deppei still continued for some 
way further up the sandy stretches of the river bed, but its 
larger edition, the boldy-striped C. immutabilis, had been left 
behind in the " hot-lands " ; then came a break, and now the 



ANTIQUITIES 235 

large Cnemidophorus was represented by the southernmost 
delegate of another species, C. mexicanus, which is striped only 
during its younger stages, and assumes later a cross-barred 
pattern, in conformity with the prevailing environmental 
conditions.* 

On the other side of the river, to the south-west of the 
village, on the top of a hill, called " el Clarinero," stand the 
ruins of "el pueblo vie jo," the old village, which is said to be 
full of antiquities. The very fact that the natives call it the 
old village indicates that they are of the same race, although 
these ruins show that these old houses were built of proper 
stones, whilst the recent houses have mud walls, are built of 
sun-dried bricks, and are tiled, except when they have only 
wattled reed- walls, with a high-pitched roof of straw. The 
doorstep of the principal shop was a large stone beautifully 
carved, and similar antique pieces were built into other houses. 
The village seemed full of antiquities, but they were difficult 
to see, and still more difficult to get hold of. We were lucky 
in getting a few stone adzes, earthenware 
tripods, and an idol ; all of which were 
offered in grateful recognition for assistance 
of various kinds, after the people had heard 
from Mateo that " la senora blanca," liked 
such things. The man who brought the 
idol, a squatting mannikin,had indeed cause 
to be thankful, and before he showed me 
his treasure, was most particular to ascer- 
tain whether we were likely to sneer at ^^^^* 
it. He had it from his father's father's 
people ; if filled with flowers on the owner's 

, ., , , ,. ... , IDOL IN SHAPE OF 

name-day it brought domestic bliss, and A FLOWER V ASE 
would we give it a position of honour in our FROM TOTOLAPAN. 
home ? This was gladly promised. A 
much finer idol was in the possession of another man who 
lived some distance off, and who sent word to us one night, 
but on the following morning he was already dead. 

* " A Contribution to the Study of Evolution based upon" the Mexican 
species of Cnemidophorua." " Proc. Zool. Soc.," London, 1906, pp. 272-375. 




236 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

Our friend, whom Mateo had assured that we were safe to 
speak to, opened out a little. Had he really derived much 
benefit from his saint, and was the latter still in full strength, 
considering that his crown was somewhat broken ? " Yes, 
sir, you try him. He may be old, he is old, but that only shows 
he has the greater experience. But why do you ask ? We 
are all Christianos, we are ' gente de razon.' Our padre also 
puts up little images in the church, and he puts vases with 
flowers in front of them, and he wants us to do the same in our 
houses, and to burn candles, and when he comes on his round 
he dresses up our boys and they burn copal. But, look you, 
when last he came back from Oaxaca he brought with him 
another image of La Virgen, in a dress of ' las tres garantias ' 
(the national colours green, white and red,), and with gold 
and stones, a costume which no woman wears. I ask you, 
what can she know about us ? She knows nothing, and is 
without experience ; ' es munieca ! ' (it is a doll). Why 
must I put a doll on my shelf simply because it comes from 
Oaxaca, whilst I am forbidden to keep those figures which I 
have from my fathers ? " 

From San Mateo del Mar to this place, and again during the 
journey through Guerrero, we saw and heard many a thing 
which threw unexpected light upon the natives' religious 
state of mind. It may not happen everywhere, the people 
take good care of that, but such things as the following do 
happen. The church, even in an out-of-the-way place, looks 
and is well kept ; there are beadles and churchwardens and a 
choir, and when the bells are rung for the " oracion," vesper 
or curfew, the people take off their hats and cross themselves ; 
some go to Mass, and they besprinkle themselves with the holy 
water, and they do all that and more. It is well to be on the 
safe side ; and one can never tell what it may be good for. But 
go inside, on a day in mid-week. On the altar stand the custom- 
ary images, etc. ; the Madonna in front of the cross, before 
her a gaudy vase with withered flowers. On either side she is 
supported by the clay figures of native gods, also supplied with 
flowers, but these are fresh, and are put into the crown of the 
idol, which in reality is often shaped so as to serve as a flower 



IDOLATERS AND CHRISTIANS 237 

vase. These "idols" disappear towards the end of the week, 
when the padre is expected ; they are put underneath the altar, 
or behind it, into a niche, and if the ecclesiastic is a zealous fool 
he finds them and makes a fuss, and then he cannot even get 
a " niece " to cook his dinner. The worldly man states in his 
annual report that, thanks to the enlightened and vigorous 
action of the local authorities, in harmonious work with the 
clergy, and through divine help, the last traces of heathenish 
idolatry seem to have disappeared at least, no case has come 
to his knowledge. Ultimately appears a well- written essay, 
by some very high prelate, on the religious state of the country, 
and everybody concerned about the natives' spiritual welfare 
is pleased ; only the Governor wonders what has come over 
his faithful heathens. 

In some States but few idolaters are left ; in others they 
form the majority. The priests are nearly always white men, 
or at least half-bloods, but some are genuine " Indies," who, 
if they succeed in getting back to their native district, naturally 
make common cause with the natives. These Indians are 
emotional, in spite of their generally stolid behaviour ; and 
they are therefore often enough ardent, even fanatic, Christians. 
In the large cathedrals of the principal towns one can witness 
little scenes like the following, which impressed itself upon our 
minds when we were at big, bustling Puebla. Two Indians 
came in ; the son, apparently more accustomed to town-life 
than his old father, both in the typical poor man's dress of the 
country. Hundreds of Indians every day make their way 
into the town with one or two donkeys, loaded with wood or 
charcoal, the accessible supply of which recedes further and 
further away into the mountains. The father was one of these 
hewers of wood, in dirty, bespattered cotton trousers, one leg 
of which hung down, and the other was drawn up to the knee, 
barefooted, and with a large battered hat that he held in both 
hands ; he walked noiselessly, as if fearing to tread, with the 
most reverent and awestruck look. Our Mateo was a man 
of a different stamp ; before arriving at Puebla I asked him 
about the churches and other buildings, knowing that he had 
been there when a youth. But he said : " Sir, I came here 



238 



THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 



as a poor boy in charge of somebody else's donkeys, to make a 
living, but not to visit temples." 

Frequently these same people cling firmly to their ancient 
rites. In the State of Oaxaca there is probably in every 
district, if not near every village, some secluded spot be it 




TYPICAL HOUSE OF THE ZAPOTECA SERRANO. 



a cave, the top of a mountain, or a pool whither the people 
clandestinely repair in order to make sacrifice, especially at 
the time of a new moon. This is propitious, owing to its 
waxing, for the obtaining of an increase of family, cattle, or 
crops. The favourite sacrifice is a fowl, or a turkey, whose head 
is cut off and buried, while the soil and other offerings, consist- 
ing of dishes with food, or tortillas, and a small gourd with some 



ANCIENT RITES. 239 

intoxicating drink, are besprinkled with the blood. The 
tortillas are pierced in three places with the spike of an agave 
leaf. Very often the heads of chickens, or the bones of dogs, 
are buried outside, against the very walls of the church. This 
is really a sign of the advance of Christianity. The devotee 
has forsaken his own secret place of worship for the church, 
inside which he, of course, cannot perform these rites. In 
other cases it depends upon the place where he makes these 
sacrifices for them to have the desired effect. For instance, 
if he bears a grudge against a neighbour he buries these things 
at night outside his intended victim's house ; though, on the 
other hand, when the ceremony is performed within the hut, 
it is meant to bring good luck. In many districts, as, for 
instance, near Tehuantepec, the hunter cuts off the head of 
the stag and buries it, after having offered it some water ; 
in others, as at San Bartolo, he has no such scruples. 

Every child, at birth, becomes intimately connected with 
some animal, and the two souls or spirits are henceforth joined 
together, and the grown-up man will never hurt that particular 
kind of creature. If the animal dies, the child dies. Naturally, 
the father is anxious to find out what kind of animal will be 
the spirit associated with his child, and in order to do this he 
strews ashes or dust upon the ground outside the house at the 
time of birth and watches for a spoor. The dead are given 
various things to help them along on their journey into the 
unknown. Sweet cakes, or mince-meat cakes, wrapped in 
the leaves of the corncobs, a little gourd with something 
drinkable, some coins, or tortillas, to throw to dangerous 
dogs are given, and oh, vanity, thy name is woman in 
the case of a lady she is provided with the large, smooth-shelled 
seeds of the mamey fruit, with which to make her hair smooth 
and glossy, these seeds being otherwise much used for smoothing 
cloth in the factories. 

We left Totolapan after a rainy night, which brought a 
plague of mosquitoes and smaller pests, with a bad mare, a 
weak-kneed mule, and six donkeys, slowly following the dry 
bed of the river, the valley of which widens out often to four 
hundred or five hundred yards, and which in many places is 



240 



THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 



absolutely dry, so that the water must find its way below the 
surface. There we overtook a man and three women, son, 
mother, wife, and sister, who could scarcely crawl along, being 
well-nigh starved, these poor creatures having come from 
Tehuan tepee in the hope of getting employment at Oaxaca. 
The man carried the little child. Their gratitude for a few 
coins was touching, but they did not beg, and, for that.matter, 
we have never met a beggar in the State of Oaxaca, excepting 
at some railway stations where the blind and lame collect, 




THE STARVING FAMILY. 



and children are being gradually demoralised by having coins 
thrown to them by well-meaning, but mistaken, tourists. " How 
have you got along from the coast without money ? " "If 
the people see that we do not want to stay, they give us shelter, 
and allow us to grind their corn, and we then share the 
tortillas." 

Further on we met a very different group, some cheerful 
pedlars coming down from Oaxaca, with children's toys, and 
they were not averse to a little trading and a chat. Were we 
Americans ? " No, from Inglaterra." " Is that a big 
town ? " " No, it is a country on the other side of the 



A .MYSTERIOUS LAND 



241 



water." " Father," said the boy, " they mean their country, 
by Intla-tierra." Then followed a long talk about that 
mysterious land. How far was it ? A question which 
was often asked, and could never be answered satisfactorily 
to people who did not know the sea, and whose idea of a ship 
was a dug-out. On some such occasion the statement that the 
voyage across the water took about a whole week fell very flat, 




PEDLARS. 



since they at once calculated the distance as six long days' 
punting with nightly rests between. " If your country lies 
near the big water it must be ' tierra caliente,' and you have 
plenty of plantains, pineapples, rice, maize, and sugar ? " 
" No, it is a ' tierra fria,' and that produces none of these 
things." " But surely you have maize ?" "None, only wheat 
and potatoes ? " " What do you make your tortillas of ? " 
" Eat only wheaten bread, which lies so cold on the stomach ? " 



242 

" What, then, do you live on ? " " We eat wheat, potatoes, 
and plenty of cattle, and the big water is full of fish, and the 
rest we buy from other tribes ; our great ' canoas ' are always 
coming and going all over the world to fetch food." " Where 
do you get ' la plata ' ? " the silver or money. " Have you 
many mines, and do you find much gold ? " " We have neither, 
but very much iron, and we make anything that can be made out 
of iron. The whole railway at Oaxaca was made in Inglaterra, 
and we buy your cotton and your ' ixtle '-fibre and your hides, 
and when we have made them into cloth, ropes, and leather, 
we take them back to sell them again in your big towns." 
" Methinks, my friend, that your country cannot be very rich. 
What are you taking up to Oaxaca, your pack-train is carry- 
ing a tidy load ? " " Oh, we have nothing to sell ; I am a 
schoolmaster, and we are catching animals and collecting 
plants, and making pictures, to tell our people at home what 
your country is like." " And do they pay you for that ? " 
" I wish they did ! " One thing was quite beyond the under- 
standing of these good people, namely, that during our cool 
season the water becomes so hard that people can walk over 
it. They did know ice in the shops of Oaxaca, funny stuff 
which was quarried by the Americanos, but it was no good, 
since it burnt your fingers and turned into water whilst you were 
looking at it. And to explain snow in a snowless land, with 
none of the high mountains within sight, would be as profitable 
as talking to a Midland yokel about liquefied air. 

The road continues to follow the river to about 1,300 feet 
above Totolapan, the slopes growing low forest, but without 
any oaks or pines ; cactus and leguminaceous shrubs form the 
chief vegetation. Yet in one of the " barrancas " our attention 
was attracted by the loud screams of macaws, which, to our 
surprise, proved to be the green Ara militaris, which we saw 
here for the first time, instead of the red and blue A. macao. 
Then followed a steep ascent until the edge of the great plateau 
was reached, about 5,000 feet above the level of the sea. The 
view back, towards the south, was a wonderful mountain 
panorama, enabling one to mark the course of the river into the 
lowlands in broiling sunshine, enhanced by a black-blue thunder- 



TROPICS OR PLATEAU 243 

storm far to the south-west. Although in reality but sparsely 
timbered, the hill-tops combined to give the impression of a 
densely-wooded country. Before us, northwards, a plain ex- 
tended right up to the horizon, except where modified by low, 
gently sloping hills. Here were no more of the senile columnar 
cactus, but opuntias and globular cactus e.g., Mamillaria 
and Echinocactus ingens in endless varieties and sizes, from 
a shilling to a cart-wheel, some ribbed, some smooth, with 
innocent-looking hairs and others with vicious-looking hooks 
and claws, some indeed almost all claws, with scarcely a stem 
to protect. Here, too, were mimosas, different to those lower 
dawn, red blooming sage, thyme-like little shrubs, a yellow 
blooming Apocynum, looking like a young eucalyptus tree 
with its dull bluish leaves, white blooming ipomoea trees, and 
here and there green meadows and fields of Indian corn. The 
air was heavenly, most fresh and crisp, in spite of the biting 
sun. What a joy, at last, to be out of the sweltering tropics, 
with their insect pests, their diseases, and their restless nights, 
where for months a full breath of pure air and a cool drink of 
natural water had become mere ideas representing the height 
of bliss. And yet how we wished ourselves back in the tropics, 
when, within a fortnight, after a little railway mishap on the 
plateau of Puebla, a drizzling cold rain and cutting wind 
brought on the homeliest of colds ; how we yearned for them 
again for a year and a half, until, with indescribable joy, we 
once more saw- the promised land, this time the tierra caliente 
of Guerrero, with all its exuberant glory, the abundance of 
life and therefore also of death, the struggle for existence in 
all its most vigorous phases, with its endless miraculous results. 
What are the most soul-expanding places, the real " openers 
of the eye," which teach us most and make us feel most 
small ? A mountain reaching into the eternal snow, a desert, 
and a tropical forest, is the reply ; these three, and the forest 
is the most wonderful of all. However, they all have their 
drawbacks, and after some time it is always a case of " Da 
wo Du nicht bist, da ist das Glueck." 

This southern edge of the great plateau of Mexico is one of 
the important world-boundaries affecting the distribution 

E'2 



244 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

of animals and plants. It is here that the North American and 
South American floras and faunas meet, or rather, where they 
first met, with the resulting mutual penetration, both peaceful 
and warlike. The edge of the plateau, at least at this spot, 
happens to be further emphasized by the fact of its gently 
sloping down towards the north into the valley of Oaxaca, 
so that the little streams arise almost at the edge. The whole 
plain, or " valley," looks like the bottom of a fresh-water lake, 
with sandy depressions, and here and there flat-topped fields 
of lava or finely triturated rubble, which contains much 
salitrous matter, partly covering the ground with a thin, whitish 
crust, and imparting to the soil and water a perceptible, though 
not disagreeable, mineral taste. This same taste, too, if 
translated into terms of smell, seems to pervade the whole 
atmosphere, especially after a slight shower. It may be 
accidental, or, on the other hand, it may be a direct cause, 
but it is in any case a fact that this sensation is considerably 
enhanced by the ipomoea tree (Ipomcea arborescens), which is 
characteristic of such comminuted volcanic soil. Its white 
flowers, with a maroon centre, have a sweet, pungent smell, the 
concentrated essence of the prevailing local scent. 

We camped some distance north of San Dionisio, the first 
village. The houses stand each in the middle of a yard, which 
is invariably fenced in with a palisade of Cereus, each plant 
growing as if carefully trimmed, and forming a single upright 
pole ; most of them have clusters of tiny spines, while others 
have none at all. The rivulet near the camp had cut its course 
deep into the soil, forming little pools, inviting places to bathe 
in. In one of them we gave our boas a swim, and wanted to 
give the same treat to the tortoises. As a preliminary, one was 
turned loose, and promptly disappeared beneath a boulder, 
Mateo having to dive for it. After some groping about we found 
it and another as well, the only tortoise which we had seen since 
we left the coast ! A long search up and down the stream 
did not produce any more. 

The Dionisians were busy with preparations for the 
National Independence Day ; they had killed a number of 
deer, of which they sent us some most welcome venison, and 



EAGLE AND LIZARD 245 

all throughout the night the strains of the national hymn, 
and those of their own Zapoteca dance were wafted across the 
plain, over and over again, always with the same hitch, until we 
knew the thing by heart, faults and all, and fell into a trance, 
and finally asleep. 

The temperature at sunrise, which was down to 15 C. 
(59 F.), drew the whole party round the camp fire, and then 
followed a monotonous ride of six hours over a regular cart- 
road fringed with hedges or clumps of shrubs and trees, the 
refuge of thousands of Sceloporus and Cnemidophorus lizards. 
A few pigeons and crows, grackles, and some " zopilotes," or 
black-faced vultures, were seen in the village. The red-faced 
"aura" had left us above Totolapan ; on the plateau this 
North American species of turkey buzzard is rare, and the 
" zopilote," also is far from common. One sight was pleasant 
enough, that of an eagle perched upon a cactus growing on 
stony ground, forming the emblem that appears on the Mexican 
coat-of-arms, only, instead of a snake, he was dissecting a 
lizard. 






CHAPTER XII. 

ZAPOTECS AND MISTECS. 

The National Fete Day at Tlacolula The Plume Dance President Diaz, an 

appreciation The Temple Palaces of Mitla The Ruins on Monte Alban 

Many Tribes and Languages The Capital of Oaxaca Progressive Natives 

A State Dinner Misteca Poetry The Mountain of San Felipe. 

Tlacolula is a town, well-built and clean ; its 6,000 inhabit- 
ants are mostly Zapoteca, and they call it " Guichibaa," which 
is said to mean " glorious place." The Aztec " Tlacolula " 
has been rendered as " small place," or " place of twisted 
things." There is a fine church, Avith many solid silver 
ornaments, but more interesting were the numerous oil and 
water-colour pictures by native artists, hung on the walls, 
votive offerings perpetuating the miracles wrought by the 
saints and the Virgin Mary. Some of them were exceedingly 
realistic. A drowning scene in a spate, a woman and baby 
floating on top of a straw-thatched roof, and being rescued 
by means of the branches of a tree ; runaway horses jumping 
over a prostrate child ; murder, fire, cattle stampeded by a 
jaguar, etc., and in some of the scenes the directing spirit of 
the rescue is indicated by a hand or face peeping out of 
the clouds. 

The Prefect, Sr. Andres Ruiz, an exceedingly courteous 
gentleman, was an antiquarian who took great interest in the 
customs of the Zapoteca, and he had brought together a lovely 
collection of old earthenware objects. He had much to say 
about his treasures, and was worth listening to, since he in- 
timately knew the language and customs of his people, who 
in turn trusted and liked him. 



UNFORGETABLE SCENES 247 

Tlacolula was en fete to celebrate the 16th of September, 
the day of the declaration of Mexico's independence of Spain. 
Moreover, the 15th is the birthday, or name-day, of President 
Diaz, and although the large town of Oaxaca, the place where 
he was born, no doubt afforded a grander spectacle, we chose 
to witness a humbler, but much more genuine, display, and it 
was our good luck to witness some unforgetable scenes. The 
little town and its large square were decorated with garlands 
and flags like a fair. From early morn there began to come in 
from far and near the " presidentes " and " alcaldes " of the 
native villages, all of them genuine Zapoteca, some of them 
chiefs. Each with his wand of office went up to the Prefect 
to report himself and to kiss hands. Thousands of these people 
came in, every one of them spotlessly clean in their white, 
buttoned cotton shirts, which are either tucked into the narrow- 
cut cotton trousers, with a coloured sash, or worn loose ; 
sandals, straw hat, and " machete " sheathed in a leather 
scabbard. A review was held of the young men, splendid 
fellows, tall, well-built, but rather narrow in the hips ; they all 
flashed their bright swords in giving the salute. The 
Zapoteca have refined features, a strong, well-shaped, aquiline 
nose, a narrow, high-cheeked face, and a long, slightly-curled 
imperial moustache. Three at first, and soon four, different 
brass bands were playing the Mexican national and Zapoteca 
hymns, all at the same time, although by no means in unison, 
so that the noise was great, and there were many other things 
going on. Some of the villagers had brought their wooden 
masks, representing animals with human faces, a jackal, a 
jaguar, a stag, etc., and made processions through the streets 
in groups, then performing a weird dance. Others crowded 
into the church, the bell peals of which added to the din. 
The market, loaded with fruit, cooked eatables, and beautiful 
blankets, was thronged, and so, of course, were the drink-shops. 
But in spite of these thousands of men, women, and children, 
many of them not knowing a word of Spanish, there was not 
the slightest disorder. Some of the chiefs became a little 
unsteady, but their young men led them gently out of the 
crowd. The greatest preparations were going on at the 



248 



THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 



municipal buildings, where all the dignitaries of the town and 
the villages, with the chiefs, collected, and x where there were a 
dozen tall men dressed for the " danza de la pluma." When these 
men were being reviewed in the pretty, shady garden, there was 
no standing-room left, and even the trees were covered with 




ZAPOTECA PARADING FOR THE PLUME DANCE. 



spectators. This dance is an old Zapotec custom, and is 
intended to record the main facts of the conquest. The 
performers are dressed in what is probably a representation of 
their ancient priests' festive costumes. Their helmet is of 
plaited leather, with a chin-strap, and a huge ornament of 
feathers of eagles and turkeys, some of which are dyed purple. 
The dress is made of leather and silk, with fringes, tassels, 
and braids of gold, and they wear an apron of leather similarly 




ZAPOTECA PLUME DANCER. 

(From "Resena historica del Estado de Oaxaca." Lie. Franc. Belrnar. 
Oaxaca, 1901.) 



THE PLUME DANCE 



251 



braided, and with embroidered designs. Their long trousers 
have three tiers of gold fringes. Yellow shoes complete their 
X ery pretty outfit, and in their hands they carry a little rattle. 




MUSICA DE LA DANZA DE PLUMA. 
(From Belmar.) 

The dance takes place after mass, in front of the church, but 
within its grounds, and lasts at least three hours. 

In the night another function took place which throws light 
upon the degree of culture reached by the Zapoteca. A shed, 



252 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

with a kind of stage, had been prepared, the Prefect took the 
chair, and after a few formal and patriotic speeches, the 
children, boys and girls, white and brown, recited poetry, the 
theme being the share which the State of Oaxaca had taken in 
the national development of the Republic. Be it remembered 
that Benito Juarez was a full-blooded Zapoteca, and that 
Porfirio Diaz is a native of Oaxaca, with a strong admixture 
of Misteca blood, and that both started life as poor boys without 
knowing a word of Spanish. It was touching to hear one of 
the brown girls in her recitation speak of the " pallido 
Frances," whom her father had helped to drive out of the land. 
Outside the shed thronged the natives, craning their necks 
and trying to get a glimpse of the performance ; behind them 
were the women, squatting around charcoal fires, roasting and 
frying, while street-sellers walked about and offered in whispers 
their stock of food. The large square looked like a camp. 
Poles had been planted in the ground, supporting pairs of 
crossed cane rods upon which mats had been put, to give shade 
during the day, and now at night they served as shelter from 
the cool, clear sky. They were all waiting for the " Grito," 
the shout which is raised at night by the chief official, 
accompanied by the peal of the church bells. " Viva Mexico," 
" Viva la independencia," went off all right, although they 
were too official to be taken up generally, but " Viva el 
Presidente, nuestro ' tata,' " " Que vive muchos afios," were 
responded to with as much of a roar as these undemonstrative 
natives are capable of. They had come to do honour to " their " 
President and their " father," whom these people simply 
adore. 

I here take the opportunity of saying something about this 
truly great man, who, in his combination of soldier, ruler, and 
political economist, does not easily find his equal. It would 
be preposterous here to allude to and to praise what he has 
done for Mexico, but I can mention a few points which it has 
been my privilege to observe on the occasion of the four 
audiences with which he has honoured me. Having furnished 
me with special letters to the governors of the various States, 
he asked me to report on the completion of my first journey, 



PRESIDENT DIAZ 253 

and to make it easier for me he dismissed his aide-de-camp. 
Being still full of the scenes witnessed at Tlacolula, I described 
them, and how the people spoke of " their President," their 
general, their " tata," how they had mustered in force, armed 
with their " machetes," and willing to do his bidding again. 
Tears came into the eyes of that man of iron ; wiping one away 
with a short, jerky gesture characteristic of him, he said : 
" You know, of course, that they are not the men I led ; they 
are their children and their grandchildren. When, at the 
time of the French intervention, I went to them, to my native 
State, I had scarcely any arms and no money, yet they came 
willingly, and followed me right up to the capital." Had I 
noticed the schools ? Truthfully I could declare that we 
had visited every school along our track, from San Mateo del 
Mar to Oaxaca itself, and how, even in remote places, the 
Zapoteca masters taught the boys successfully to write an 
astonishingly good hand ; how the boys did their sums, and 
learned the political geography of their country out of sensibly- 
written books. But I could tell him more. How, between 
Mitla and Oaxaca, we had seen several grown-up men, who had 
bought spelling-books, sitting by the roadside, anxious to see 
what it would be like to master their contents. Then he spoke 
of the Huavi, the superstition of the people of San Bartolo, 
and wound up with a description of his visit to the old 
Zapoteca fortress of Quiengola, near Tehuantepec. The 
President knows his country better than any other man ; 
during his long and adventurous life he has visited, mostly as 
a soldier, nearly every State, and he takes an interest in every- 
thing, applying to all things alike a marvellous power of 
observation. After our return from Guerrero he talked freely 
about its natural history ; for instance, he first described the 
comparatively harmless nature of the rattlesnakes, and then, 
to the astonishment of a general who was present, he described 
the vicious " rabo de hueso," the " fer de lance " of Corboba, 
explaining that the bony appearance of its tail was really caused 
by peculiarly-coloured little scales. The circumstances, under 
which he made his observations, were described with fascinat- 
ting, realistic touches. " Geckos ? Oh, yes, I know their ways 



254 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

and how they feed ; while I happened to be lying wounded I 
watched them for many a day hunting for flies on the walls 
and rafters of the hut. As to scorpions, the effect of the sting 
inflicted by them is much exaggerated, and people get over it 
within four to six hours ; but there is one kind, in the hot country 
of Jalisco, which is small and almost transparent, and this is 
really dangerous. I happen to know this from experience. 
When I was camping with a squad of soldiers near Tepic, I 
warned the men to be careful, but five were stung overnight, 
and two of them died ; maybe they were not in good condition." 
The fiasco about the " animal planta " I have related elsewhere, 
in Chapter XIV. Then he gave a succinct, but perfectly clear, 
account of the theory of malarial and yellow-fever infection 
through mosquitoes, with references to the working of a 
commission at Vera Cruz. 

Audiences are given on certain afternoons in the palace, 
unless one is honoured by an invitation to the tastefully 
furnished private residence. The company in the ante-chamber 
is a wonderful sight. First, there are men, mostly foreigners, 
who want some concession ; officers with their private affairs ; 
chiefs who come to report some trouble to " their father " ; 
Misteca and Zapoteca women, who come from afar, and to 
whom he speaks in their own language ; a crowd of all ranks, 
and of many nations. 

Within eight miles to the east of Tlacolula are the ruins of 
Mitla, one of the greatest and most beautiful sights in the whole 
of Mexico. A good country road leads to them from Oaxaca, 
a drive of thirty-one miles. The drive is through open country, 
which appears still more barren and desolate as we approach 
the ranges of the hills, which are covered with stones and 
boulders, volcanic, brown, bare, and dry. An exceedingly 
good inn is kept in the village by Sr. Felix Quero ; it is well- 
named " The Surprise " ; has a garden-like " patio," clean, 
shady rooms, good cooking and service. The village itself 
is a wretched settlement. 

From it two parallel roads lead across a little stream 
straight to the ruins. Mitla, contracted from " Mictlan," is 
an Aztec name, meaning " death-place " ; the Zapoteca call 



RUINS OF MITLA 255 

the village " Yu-baa," and the ruins " Lio-baa," meaning 
" place of delight, or rest." The general plan of the ruins, 
which stand on flat, rising ground, is this : In the middle of a 
wide place stands a small pyramid of stone, mortar, and earth, 
and ascended by a flight of stairs on the east side. It is now 
surmounted by a cross. There are four principal ruins of 
palaces : one to the north, a second to the east, facing the 
stairs of the pyramid, a third and a fourth facing the south-east 
and south-west corners of the square (which is open to the west), 
and at some distance southwards, on the village side of the 
stream, stands a mound and a pyramid. The palaces, which 
are magnificent in their dimensions and their purity of design, 
are of marvellous beauty. Each may be described as a square, 
with the sides true to the cardinal points, entirely 'built of care- 
fully-hewn stone, and averaging, perhaps, fifteen feet in height. 
The front is taken up almost entirely by a flight of stairs, with 
three doors near the top. The three other walls have neither 
windows nor doors, so that the four walls really enclose a court 
divided into many large and small chambers, all opening into 
the court. That they were roofed in, is certain. In one of 
the halls stands a row of monoliths, round, polished pillars, 
nearly twelve feet high, into the tops of which mortises had 
been cut to receive the beams of the ceiling. The most 
beautiful chambers are those of the east court. The walls of 
each have a separate " Grecque " pattern, which is either 
cut out of the stone or of small stones mortared in. The 
groundwork, of which traces are still extant, was painted red. 
In the walls are also niches. No arches are to be seen, but 
everywhere straight, rectangular lines ; enormous blocks of 
stone, a yard thick and several yards long, form the lintels 
over the doors, and many parts of the outside walls also show 
a Grecque pattern. 

The largest palace was that on the north, standing on the 
higher ground ; it is practically ruined by the church of San 
Pablo, which has been built right into it, and most of the once 
beautiful court has been turned into the " curato," with 
stables for horses, cattle, and pigs, though the priest himself 
does not live there. Much of the material for these vandalic 



256 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

buildings has been taken from the various palaces. They 
were, after all, the same bigoted fanatics who, much about the 
same time, built a church right into the Mosque of Cordoba. 
Those dirty stables were a heartrending sight ; along the walls 
runs a frieze of hard, polished stucco, coloured dark red, and 
upon it were painted in white some hundreds of figures 
representing gods, people, snakes, birds, flowers, and trees, 
most minutely and carefully executed. Many of these frescoes 
have been ruthlessly destroyed, and are now breaking away ; 
the same applies to those which have survived over the doors 
on the inside of the other courts. These paintings cannot be 
saved, the mischief has been done, but lately, within the last 
few years, Government has taken the rest under protection ; 
a caretaker prevents pilfering and disfigurement, and the 
Federal Government inspector, or conservator of Mexican 
antiquities, has to some considerable extent restored many of 
the blocks to their proper position on the palaces. There are 
also, for instance, near the south-east court, subterranean 
crypts built in the shape of a cross. A narrow entrance, flush 
with the ground, faced by large stone slabs, leads into a low 
passage which then widens into three chambers, the ceiling of 
which can just be touched, the walls being ornamented with 
the usual Grecque patterns. Much fuss has been made about 
these crosses, and others in Yucatan, and fanatics have seen 
in them evidence of pre-Columbian Christian influence. It is 
nothing of the kind. The entrance-passage runs from west 
to east, and the other arms point, consequently, to the north, 
east, and south, the cardinal points. Humboldt tried to dis- 
pose of the Christian ascription of the American prehistoric 
crosses by the erroneous statement that they have only three 
arms, the top extension being wanting. Similar underground 
cruciform crypts have been found in the mountains further 
east, and more no doubt will be discovered at Mitla itself, if 
ever the accumulated debris and soil from the whole of the wide 
space should be removed. The neighbourhood is full of 
mounds and similar remains. 

Who were the people who constructed all these marvellous 
buildings : these glorified palaces, and mausoleums of kings 



A MYSTERY 257 

and high priests ? Nobody knows. They were already 
deserted, although not spoilt by vandalism, when the Spaniards 
discovered them. It was then, as now, the land of the 
Zapoteca, and one of the later Aztec kings is known to have 
conquered them to a certain extent, when he forced his way 
into the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. History and tradition are 
mute about Mitla, the natives of which, now about as low as 
civilised natives can be, are quite indifferent about the ruins, 
and have eagerly taken to their modern substitute. They 
being of a religious turn of mind, the Spaniards found them 
willing disciples, and here, as elsewhere, they imported the 
Inquisition ; and, with the torturing and burning of heretics 
come in its train, they provided that excitement which hitherto 
had been derived from human sacrifices. 

The difficulty of assigning these ruins to the Zapoteca, or 
to the fabulous Tolteca, lies in the fact that these palaces are 
so very different in structure and design from anything else 
in Mexico, except, perhaps, from the temples of Yucatan ; 
they contain hardly any carved figures such as are found, for 
instance, on the Pyramid of Xochicalco, nor are they big 
mounds like those of Teotihuacan and Cholula. Scarcely 
anything has been found in the crypts, except a few bones and 
some little clay figures. The whole place seems to have been 
carefully cleared of all its numerous contents by the rightful 
owners, when these had to leave the country, and in this 
respect we are reminded of exactly the same conditions at 
Teotihuacan. Yet the clay or stone figures found in the land 
of the Zapoteca are characterised by an elaborate head-dress, 
in design much resembling that still used by the performers 
of the " plume-dance," which has its unmistakable natural 
prototype in the '' Rey Papa Mosga," a little flycatcher 
(Muscivora mexicana). This bird inhabits Central America, 
but extends northwards into the tierra caliente of Mexico, 
preferring thickly-wooded localities in the neighbourhood of 
a stream. A few other species, all rather rare, live in northern 
South America. The bird itself is dull brown and buff, but 
its glory is its crest which, when erected, forms a scarlet halo, 
each feather being tipped with black and metallic purple ; 



258 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

and the shorter feathers so arranged as to form a narrower 
crescent of black dots across the red disc. The female's 
head-dress is smaller, and orange to yellow, instead of red. 
When at rest, this " huipil " one cannot help thinking of the 
resemblance to the Tehuantepec belles is folded back, and 
rests upon the neck ; but these diminutive beauties are always 
excitedly opening and shutting what no doubt they glory in 
possessing. 

To the south-west of Oaxaca, within a few miles of the 
town, is the Monte Alban, on the plateau-like top of which 
stand the ruins of what must have been a large and fortified 
town, to judge from the many earthworks, walls and mounds 
scattered widely over the slopes, and the undulating ground 
near the plateau, on which have recently been unearthed 
(and cleared of debris] many great terraced palaces, pyra- 
mid-like structures, subterranean passages, and crypts. There 
are so many, and the place is so large that a short des- 
cription would be futile. Standing on the top of one of the 
quadrangular terraced esplanades we could only gaze and 
wonder at the rest. The sides of the passages leading to one 
of the crypts are lined with stone slabs on which are carved 
in relief several men about four feet high ; but these men have 
Mongolian features, and, what is more wonderful, one of them 
has a long pigtail hanging down his back. It is so unmistakable 
a queue that one of the natives pointing to it, said, " Look at 
the Chinaman ! " It is ridiculous to call these figures 
" monkeys with the tail turned up " (and growing from the 
head) in order to do away with anything which might possibly 
bear some testimony as to the oriental origin of this civilis- 
ation. I say " might possibly," since the whole of that question 
has never been tackled in earnest, although certain shallow 
(and therefore all the more assertive) hypotheses have been 
launched, only to be brushed away by equally weak and 
scornful objections. In contrast with Mitla, on Monte Alban 
have been found countless figures of terra cotta, or carved out 
of stone, with idols, implements, pottery and ornaments cut out 
of obsidian, or made of gold, some of great beauty and in perfect 
condition. Cartloads of broken bits might be carried away 



A CENSUS 259 

by anyone who likes to run the risk of evading the guardians. 
Here, on this side, we are in the land of Misteca, closely allied 
to the Zapoteca. " Mixtl " in Aztec means a " cloud " ; it 
is the " cloud-land," the mountainous western half of the 
State of Oaxaca, which the natives themselves call " nu 
dravui," " land of rain." 

It is interesting to note the differences in the facial features 
of the clay figures of Monte Alban. They agree as much with 
those of the present Misteca as do those further east and south 
with the present Zapoteca, so that these two large tribes with 
certainty seem to have inhabited, and worshipped at, these 
buildings, though it does not necessarily follow that they 
constructed either Monte Alban or Mitla. 

Sr. Don Francisco Belmar, then Secretary of State at 
Oaxaca, now judge of the Supreme Court in Mexico, has given 
the following approximate census of the many tribes which 
inhabit the State of Oaxaca : 

White and Mestizos . . . . 320,000 

Zapoteca 284,000 

Mijteca 205,000 

Mazateca 37,000 

Mixe, or Ayook 32,000 

Chinanteca *. 18,000 

Cuicateca 14,000 

Chatina 13,000 

Chontales 10,000 

Mexicanos . . . . . . . . 4,600 

Huavi 3,500 

Chochos, or Popolocos . . . . 2,600 

Triques 2,200 

Amusgos . . . . . . . . 2,000 

Zoque 2,000 

About . . 1,000,000 

It may here be mentioned that the Mexican Republic does 
not yet possess the machinery necessary for making anything 
like an accurate census of its population ; and the numbers 
of the less civilised natives especially are mere guesswork, 

s2 



260 



THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 



let alone those of the still really wild tribes. The Prefect 
sends in the return for his district, himself relying upon the 
returns of the municipal presidents, who certainly do not over- 




MIXE TRAMPS. 



estimate their people, many of whom live in lonely hamlets, 
scattered among the mountain fastnesses. The census of the 
towns is just as difficult. The Indians shrewdly suspect that 



THE TWO RACES 261 

a census may be connected with increased taxation, with 
military service, vaccination, and similar blessings of civilisation, 
and those who feel that they are " wanted " think that this 
is a dodge for catching them. Consequently, there is an exodus, 
and they vanish. Those authorities who know the prevailing 
conditions, consider the population of brown natives to be 
several millions larger than the official returns. It is also 
absolutely impossible to distinguish between white and people 
of mixed blood, since every degree from pure white to *' Indios 
legitimos," or genuine natives, is amply represented. Their 
names and surnames do not give the slightest clue to descent, 
these being almost invariably Spanish, never translations of 
aboriginal names ; in fact, the latter are now extremely scarce, 
as, for instance, that of " Mexia," the name of one of the 
Aztec generals who was shot, together with the Emperor 
Maximilian. Owing to this mixture of races, there exists no 
racial question in Mexico, which in this respect is an ideal 
country. A full-blooded Indian can attain to the highest 
position in the land, witness Juarez, the Zapoteca. Soldiers, 
lawyers, judges of the High Court, savants, have been and are 
Indians, the majority of them Zapoteca or Misteca, and it 
appears that the pure native who rises to a high position, is 
a better man than the half-caste, while, again, a small admixture 
of Indian blood is of great advantage. If the total population 
of the Republic be taken at thirteen millions, about two and a 
half millions are white, six and a half millions of mixed blood, 
and the rest, at least four millions, are pure " Indios " ; and 
if the total should, as some authorities suspect, amount to near 
fifteen millions, the additional numbers would be due to the 
" Indios." In any case, the " brown blood " predominates, 
and there is no sign of its being swamped by the white. Few 
of the many Indian tribes have shown any sign of decreasing 
within the last century. Those who live in the wild, still 
uncivilised parts, live on as before, or rather better, since 
intertribal wars have long since come to an end. As a rule, 
the natives increase but very slowly ; they are prolific enough, 
but the infant mortality is very great, owing to the almost 
incredible carelessness of the parents. In the hot countries, 



262 



THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 



for instance, each married couple and they mostly all marry 
averages from five to six children, but infant mortality 




ZAPOTECA CAGE SELLER. 

varies from 30 to 66 per cent., with a usual average of 50 per 
cent. 

How very capable the Misteca and Zapoteca are of progress 
we had some opportunity of seeing during a week's stay in 



OAXACA 263 

their capital. Its name, pronounced Oahakka, is a corruption 
of the Aztec Huaxyacac, which refers to a kind of fruit-tree, 
the " huaje," and nearly every tribe has its own name for the 
town, quite different in sound, but always alluding to this 
tree. The Misteca themselves have a tradition that they are 
descended from the trunks of trees. This tradition is still 
vigorous, and tree-worship is still actually practised, although, 
of course, in secret. In the museum of the town is preserved 
the branch of a tree which grew in the neighbourhood, and was 
cut down by the authorities because the natives went there to 
worship it, on account of its bearing a resemblance to a quaintly 
distorted human figure. The town was already in existence 
at the time of the conquest, and was soon garrisoned by one 
of Cortez' lieutenants as a southern outpost, and called Segura 
de la Frontera. Situated in a large and very fertile plain, 
at an altitude of 5,000 feet, with a delightful and healthy 
climate, it soon became a prosperous settlement. The whole 
district and much more besides, comprising many towns and 
villages, was given by the Emperor Charles to Cortez, together 
with the title of Marquez del Valle de Oaxaca, and thenceforth 
he was known as El Marquez del Valle, or simply El 
Marquez. 

The town has about 40,000 inhabitants ; the views across 
the plain, bordered on the west by the mountains, is not 
particularly grand, but the town itself is well-built, and contains 
many beautiful churches, well-kept gardens, broad avenues, 
and a most interesting square, flanked by colonnades and the 
Governmental palace. Every evening a native band played 
on the stand in front of the palace, and the garden, the seats, 
and the walks under the trees, were crowded. They played 
beautifully though, and, as a brown native lady said : " What 
else can you expect in a town where nearly everybody is musical, 
and can play some instrument ? " There were ladies and 
gentlemen in smart European dress, and amongst them hundreds 
of bare-footed natives, the women with a dark, mostly blue, 
" rebozo " (a sort of mantilla) over their head and shoulders, 
and the men wrapped in " zarapes " of many colours and 
patterns, and with the usual sombrero. Again, there was no 



264 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

noise, or quarrelling, but everybody was on his or her best 
behaviour, and if anything happened the native policemen, 
in their smart dark tunics and sandals, armed with machete 
and revolver, unobtrusively put things right. The people of 
the State of Oaxaca pride themselves on having no Federal 
police ; they won't tolerate them, because they feel perfectly 
capable of looking after the public safety themselves. Troops 
are, however, stationed at Oaxaca, and at Juchitan, on the 
Isthmus, in consideration of the political importance of this 
State. 

The Governor, Sr. Don Bolanos Cacho, now a barrister of 
renown in Mexico City, paid us every attention he could 
possibly think of. Under his personal guidance we thoroughly 
saw the town. It contains an institute of science and art, 
a kind of university, comprising, besides others, a medical 
faculty, a fine library, and a museum in which priceless local 
antiquities, among them some of the actual moulds used in 
prehistoric times for the making of clay masks. Amongst 
the animals may be mentioned a specimen of a " Gila 
monster " (Heloderma horridum), a perfect giant of its kind, 
about two and a half feet in length. But by far the most 
important and interesting subjects to us were the normal 
schools for male and female teachers. That for the women 
teachers has grown out of the "Academia de Ninas," i.e., girls' 
academy, founded by President Diaz, who thus emphasized his 
opinion of the value of education. The " Escuela Normal para 
Profesores " contains the room in which no less a man than 
the President, General Diaz, himself was born, or rather, let 
us say that the school, quite a new building, stands at the place 
of that historic house, and upon one of the class-rooms has 
been bestowed the special honour of having been the chamber 
of birth. Lecturing was in full swing, everyone of the teachers 
was a native, and the classes consisted of native boys, these 
future professors or teachers being attired in spotlessly clean 
white shirts and pantaloons, with bare feet. In the chemistry 
class the master had written a long formula for some com- 
pound, say sulphuric acid, on the blackboard, which these 
brown, intelligent-looking boys took turns in reducing. For 



A STATE DINNER 265 

several days after I was taken to task by people who wanted 
to know whether it was true that the boys " had correctly 
developed sulphuric acid." Not that the enquirers knew any- 
thing about the process themselves, but that they felt justly 
proud of the achievement. The other classes were on a par 
with this one, geography was splendid, hand-writing like 
copper-plate, and the answers to complicated mental arith- 
metical questions were given like a flash. These young 
budding professors are now sent out to almost every out-of-the- 
way village to teach Spanish and the three " R's," and the 
better and more widely taught they are themselves, the better 
will they be able to accomplish their often enormously difficult 
task. There is no fear that the Huavi boys at the far-off lagoons 
on the Pacific coast will learn how to " develop sulphuric acid," 
nor will they be taught English in a hurry, although their 
" maestros " are now obliged to learn both subjects at the 
Normal Schools. But the brighter boy does not stop at that, 
, he finds his way into the " Institute," or to Mexico City. 

The director, or headmaster, of this school, who was a full- 
blooded Misteca (Sr. Abraham Castellanos), got dispensation 
from his duties to act as our cicerone during the whole time 
of our stay in the town. As he himself was interested in natural 
history, and, above all, was a keen investigator of his nation's 
past, besides being the author of several pedagogic works, it 
was delightful and instructive to make excursions with him 
and his graceful sister. 

A great dinner was given in our honour, but thoroughly 
enjoyable as it was, it was also very embarrassing. Our 
" society " clothes had been left behind in Mexico, and our 
wardrobe, which showed considerable wear and tear, was not 
exactly the thing for a State function at which to meet the 
Governor and his brother, the Secretary of State, the director 
of the institute, the director of the school, several consuls, and 
the ladies of those gentlemen. My personal trouble began 
with the hat ; every Mexican of tact treats the hat of his guest 
with the greatest respect ; at a visit it is given a chair to itself ; 
it is thought to be as sacred and entitled to as much personal 
consideration as is the sword of a German officer. In the 



266 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

ante-room of the palace the guests were met by orderlies, 
the captain of the Municipal Guard, in full uniform, who received 
the shiny Parisian top-hats and deposited them upon velvet 
cushions, the same treatment being accorded to my apology 
for a sombrero. Stout laced boots, which had once been 
yellow, walked in company with patent leathers. However, 
the assembly, representatives of the best society, had not come 
to inspect our garments, and the conversation during the long 




ABRAHAM CASTELLANOS. 

and choice dinner was as animated as it was interesting. It 
was polyglot ; you could speak, or at least listen to Spanish, 
English, German, French, Norwegian, Misteca, and Zapoteca, 
whilst Sr. Belmar, the linguist, had half-a-dozen other native 
idioms up his sleeve. Even Latin was attempted as a joke, 
but rightly voted to be not a patch upon Spanish, which was, 
after all, the general medium for conversation. This dinner 
made us free of the place, and there is much good society in 
the town, which is interested in literature and art as well as 



A LOVE SONG 267 

commerce. Sr. Castellanos has since been transferred to 
Mexico, where also we had the pleasure of seeing much of him. 
As a Misteca, who speaks his native dialect, he is more fit to 
pursue his hobby of collecting the traditions and songs of his 
ancient race than is the professional foreign savant, whose 
knowledge can never hope to understand the genius, the real 
soul of these idioms, so fundamentally different in thought 
from anything we are accustomed to. With his permission 
a few samples of Misteca songs are given here : 

Fragment of Misteca Love Song, " The Flower of the Mountain," 
collected and translated into Spanish by Sr. Abraham Castellanos. 

" ITA NUH Yucu." " LA FLOR DEL MONTE." 

Dodo nehi deke yuco Del alto monte en la escarpada cumbre 

Dacuiconi leluni Vi que agitabas el airon gallardo, 

Guemehda yedah Y con este huipil te dije entonces : 

Ni da cuico dah. " Adios mi amado ! " 

Ita nuh yucu Y yo tambien, desde el creston altisimo, 

Niculi nuhlo. Cuando fije los ojos hacia el llano, 

Nihjinon ditali nuh yuco Te vi tan bella cual la flor del monte, 

Xdicocotili nuhlo. Que crece en los penascos ! 

Ni kenditali Cuando en el claro tu, y yo en la puerta, 

Yeda behe, Mire el aivon moverse entre tus manos, 

Xijitandeli ichi yuco " Ven," te dije, " no tardes amor mio ! 

Nucandou ! Ven ;i mis brazos ' " 

Translation : THE FLOWER OF THE MOUNTAIN. 

From the high mountain's precipice 
I saw thee wave thy beautiful head-dress, 
And with this " huipil " I said to thee, 
" Good-bye, my beloved." 

And I, from the high crest, 
When I fixed my eyes upon the plain, 
Beheld thee as beautiful as the flower 
Which grows upon the pinnacles. 

When thou in the open, and I at the gate 

Saw the head-dress move in thy hands, 

" Come," said I to thee, " do not delay, my love 

Come into my arms." 



268 



THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 



A Misteca 
SHASTNUNIK. 
Dihi cashi te yachi 
Tuu ihn quhiu 
Sha shidootnaa u 
Septiembrea. 

Nguer ndaur beher 
Te nshicar nanducur 
Manii ngutur. 

Shidor ihn yucu 
Te shidor nca 
Te cuay nsheer 
Ihn nu-yuayu. 

The shani-inir nucor 

Shito nur, 

Dua, te ihn nunu 

Nane ndhi ja diqui 

Dugju yucu ndiuhj, 

Ihn sheine bico, 

Tuinir shai macucuee 

Sha juhdau, te ngachir : 

Daudee giieshavi ! 

Ntecur shaa daud i ndavido, 

Ihn sh'o cannindei 

Nudau yuco ! 

Te dua nshicar 

Cunu yodo. 

Nu tuat cueet 

Kquiti 

Nanit 

Vah ngutur ! 

Nshicar shit 
Dua nutnio 
Chihs den te shatu 
Dua ngandi 
Nuhihoo shacada 
Tnior shit. 

Nshee shanini 
Kicuat te ndetatut ! 
Nut nushathit, 
Dedo cum'it 
Mengat ndait 
Nini ruh j , na quidir ! 



Reverie. 

Asi PENSABA. 
Alegre claro y rapido 
Amanece un dia 
Que cruzaba dos 
Setiembre. 

Sali triste choza 
Y eche busca 
Buenas yuntas. 

Cruce un cerro 
Y subi otra 
Y fin llegue 
Una muralla. 

Y pensativo sente 
Dirigiendo vista 
Doquier y un instante 
Aparece alia crestones 
Altas Cordilleras limitrofes 
Una orgullosa nube 
Parecia no dilataba 
En Hover, y dije : 
Tempestad segura ! 
Oi que eco respondia 
En otro lado 
India cordillera. 

Y entonces dirijo 
Hondo llano 
Donde entre infinite 
Animales grandes 
Estaban 
Placenteros toros. 

Marcho ellos 
Hasta trabajo 
Bajo y ardiente 
Rayo sol 
En donde dedico 
Trabajar eUos. 

Llego tarde 
Libertad descanso. 
Vuelvan potrero 
Donde gobiernan 
Soberano bramido 
En tanto yo me duermo. 



A DIFFICULT LANGUAGE 269 

The meaning of the literal translation is as follows : 

THUS THOUGHT I. 

The second of September arises clear and rapidly. I left my dreary hut to 
fetch my good oxen. I crossed one ridge after another and at last came to a 
wall. And felt thoughtful and sat down, looking beyond to the high ridges of 
the far sierra, where appeared a threatening cloud which soon began to rain. 
And I said to myself : Surely a thunder-storm, I hear its echo from the other 
side of my native sierra. I descend into the plain below, where amongst 
many wild beasts stood my patient oxen. I marched them under the burning 
sun to the place where they had to work. With the evening came the hour 
of freedom and rest. Good friends, or herdsmen, return to the plain where 
you reign (over the animals) with your loud cries, and meanwhile I shall go 
to sleep. 

The little love song speaks for itself, and the ploughman's 
reverie is not so bad either, at least it smells of the soil and of 
labour. 

In quasi-monosyllabic language, such as this is, many 
words look alike, since their many slight variations of sound 
cannot be rendered by our alphabet ; as ST. Castellanos 
merrily remarked, the confusion, in a reverse way, is almost as 
bad as English, as he was fully aware of the bewildering resem- 
blance of words like " thought " and " caught," " dough," and 
" doe," " brought " and " broad," " he rose," " arose," and " a 
rose," etc. However, that seems as nothing to what these 
American languages can do. I found, for instance, in Belmar's 
glossary of Chatino, that the syllable " koo " had thirteen 
absolutely different meanings, distinguishable by intonation 
and sound, and not to be confounded either with other 
approximate forms, such as " ku," " kua," " kee," etc. Lastly, 
be it mentioned, that these languages, especially Zapoteca, 
are highly developed, as much as, if not more than, the 
Azteca which, happening to be extensively employed by the 
old Spanish chroniclists, has attained to a kind of classical 
status, like the Maya, whilst the others have, until recently, 
been neglected. Moreover, whilst not much " literature " 
can be got out of the modern Aztec, it is otherwise with the 
two principal tribes of Oaxaca. 

To the north-west of the town of Oaxaca rises the Cerro de 
San Felipe del Agua, to a height of a little more than 9,000 
feet, which is short of the " official " height, viz., 10,200 feet. 



270 THROUGH SOUTHERN MEXICO 

In the tangle of hedges on the slightly rising plain Cnemido- 
phorus mexicanus was abundant ; and in shady gardens between 
stockades and cactus hedges there was also C. bocourti, whose 
forgotten habitat was thus at last rediscovered. At the 
village of San Felipe, about four hundred feet above the town, 
grow many "sabino" trees (Taxodium), upon which swarmed up 
and down Sceloporus microlepidotus, all the specimens coloured 
grey-green on the back, in harmony with the shading of these 
trees, and much in contrast with those found elsewhere. In the 
outskirts of the village, amongst a wilderness of untidy gardens, 
we were lucky enough to find many plants of the Jalapa mirabilis, 
so called from the fact that the flowers vary from red to yellow 
and white. The three colours, all pure, were equally repre- 
sented, the respective plants growing side by side. Only a 
few of the seeds were ripe (at the end of September), and only 
one plant (with white flowers) has been reared in the Botanic 
Gardens at Cambridge. Large fig-trees, " higo del monte," 
with tiny yellow sweet figlets, grow in most of the villages of 
the district. At the foot of the mountain the Cnemidophorus 
gives way, and the beautiful Sceloporus formosus and S. 
acanthinus appear, amongst a profusion of small oaks and a 
few miserable specimens of pines. These latter, according to 
the natives, were here, at an altitude of 6,000 feet, quite out of 
place, a farmer credibly explaining the fact by suggesting that 
they must have sprung from accidental seeds. Soon there 
appeared red Castilleia flowers, fine forests of many kinds 
of oak, with a sprinkle of arbutus ; a profusion of bulbous 
orchids in the ground, Pinguicola, sundew, and begonias, 
while the mossy limbs and stems of the trees were covered 
with various kinds of orchids. Near 8,000 feet elevation ap- 
peared magnificent evergreen oaks, mauve dahlias, deep blue 
tradescantias, blue lupins, and a pungent herb called " yerva 
del borracho," the drunkard's herb, an infusion of which is 
said to be a good remedy for the after-effects of too much 
t