a bright sunny look about the whole place; but to Englishmen, accustomed to the innumerable appliances of civilized life, it seems surprising how very few and simple are the wants of these people.  The inventory of their whole possessions will only occupy a few lines.  The metate for grinding or rubbing down the maize to be patted out into tortillas, a few calabashes for bottles, and pieces of calabashes for bowls and cups, prettily ornamented and painted, and hanging on pegs round the walls.  A few palm-leaf mats (petates) to sleep upon, some pots of thin unglazed earthenware for the cooking, which is done over a wood-fire in the middle of the floor.  A chimney is not necessary in houses which are like the Irishman’s coat, consisting principally of holes.  A wooden box, somewhere, contains such of the clothes of the family as are not in wear.  There is really hardly anything I can think of to add to this catalogue, except the agricultural implements, which consist of a wooden spade, a hoe, some sharp stakes to make the drills with, and the machete—­which is an iron bill-hook, and serves for pruning, woodcutting, and now and then for less peaceful purposes.  Sometimes one sees women weaving cotton-cloth, or manta, as it is called, in a loom of the simplest possible construction; or sitting at their doors in groups, spinning cotton-thread with the malacates, and apparently finding as much material for gossip here as elsewhere.

The Mexicans spun and wove their cotton-cloth just in this way before the Conquest, and malacates of baked clay are found in great numbers in the neighbourhood of the old Mexican cities.  They are simple, like very large button-moulds, and a thin wooden skewer stuck in the hole in the middle makes them ready for use.  Such spindles were used by the lake-men of Switzerland, but the earthen heads were not quite the same in shape, being like balls pierced with a hole, as are those at present used in Mexico.

The Indians here had not the dull sullen look we saw among those who inhabit the colder regions; and, though belonging to the same race, they were better formed and had a much freer bearing than their less fortunate countrymen of the colder districts.

Our business in the village was to get guides for the cavern.  While some men were gone to look for the Alcalde, we walked about the village, and finally encamped under a tree.  One of our men had got us a bag full of fruit,—­limes, zapotes, and nisperos, which last are a large kind of medlar, besides a number of other kinds of fruit, which we ate without knowing what they were.  Though rather insipid, the limes are deliciously refreshing in this thirsty country; and they do no harm, however enormously one may indulge in them.  The whole neighbourhood abounds in fruit, and its name Cacahuamilpan means “the plantation of cacahuate nuts.”