An acquaintance of ours was telling us one day about the lives of these men.  One week, a party of three miners had come upon a very rich bit of ore, and went away from the raya, each man with a handkerchief full of dollars.  This was on Saturday evening.  On Monday morning our informant went out for a ride, and on the road he met three dirty haggard-looking men, dressed in some old rags; one of the three came forward, taking off the sort of apology for a hat which he had on, and said, “Good morning, Senor Doctor, would you mind doing us the favour of lending us half a dollar to get something to eat?” They were the three successful miners; and when, a few days afterwards, the man who had asked for the money came back to return it, the Doctor inquired what had happened.

It seemed that the three, as soon as they had received their money on Saturday, got a lift to the nearest town, and there rigged themselves out with new clothes, silver buttons, five-pound serapes, and a horse for each, with magnificent silver mountings to the saddle and spurs.  Here they have dinner, and lots of pulque, and swagger about outside the door, smoking cigarettes.  There, quite by chance, an acquaintance meets them, and admires the horses, but would like to see their paces tried a little outside the town.  So they pace and gallop along for half a mile or so; when, also quite accidentally, they find two men sitting outside a rancho, playing at cards.  The two men—­strangely enough—­are old acquaintances of the curious friend, and they produce a bowl of cool pulque from within, which our miners find quite refreshing after the ride.  Thereupon they sit down to have a little game at monte, then more pulque, then more cards; and when they awake the next morning, they find themselves possessed of a suit of old rags, with no money in the pockets.  They had dim recollections of losing—­first money, then horses, and lastly clothes, the night before; but—­as they were informed by the old woman, who was the only occupant of the place besides themselves—­their friends had been obliged to go away on urgent business, and could not be so impolite as to disturb them.  So they walked back to the mines, ragged and hungry, and borrowed the doctor’s half-dollar.

[Illustration:  LEATHER SANDALS, WORN BY THE NATIVE INDIANS.]

CHAPTER X.

TEZCUCO.  MIRAFLORES.  POPOCATEPETL.  CHOLULA.

[Illustration:  WALKING AND RIDING COSTUMES IN MEXICO. (After Nebel.)]

The wet season was fast coming on when we left Mexico for the last time.  We had to pass through Vera Cruz, where the rain and the yellow fever generally set in together; so that to stay longer would have been too great a risk.

Our first stage was to Tezcuco, across the lake in a canoe, just as we had been before.  We noticed on our way to the canoes, a church, apparently from one to two centuries old, with the following doggerel inscription in huge letters over the portico, which shows that the dogma of the Immaculate Conception is by no means a recent institution in Mexico: