Three years ago, on my return from Guatemala, I met in this city an English doctor named Castle, who has lived here for many years—­a man of scientific tastes and interests, who has employed his leisure in studying the botany, zoology, and indians of the district.  He is well-informed, and one of the few persons acquainted with the Juaves.  I counted on his help in approaching that curious and little-known tribe.  The doctor’s house is full of pets; eight different kinds of parrots, a red and yellow macaw, a brilliant-billed, dark-plumaged toucan, an angora goat, a raccoon, dogs and cats, are a part of the happy family that prowls at large in his house.  A little creature, an indian, no more than eight years old, has adopted the doctor for her father.  She had come to him as a patient for a trouble by no means uncommon here—­night-blindness; in caring for her, he gained the little creature’s heart, and she will hardly hear of leaving him to return home.  The doctor accompanied us on our first visit to San Blas, and told us many things, not only of the Juaves, but of the Zapotecs and other indians of the region.

From the hotel, in the heart of Tehuantepec, to the town-house of San Blas, is a walk of only twenty minutes.  Here for three days we did our work, returning to our hotel for meals and lodging.  The work went easily, the men presenting little or no objection to our operations; measurements, busts, portraits—­all were taken.  On the whole, the Tehuantepecanos do not present a simple, pure indian type.  The women seemed to be purer than the men.  The secretario at San Blas has been to school.  He is one of the few indians of the district who has taken an interest in the study of his native tongue.  He has already published a grammar of the Zapotec, as spoken in his village.  He has also printed a little tract for lovers, in which high-sounding phrases are translated from the Spanish into Zapotec.  He has also prepared, and holds in manuscript, a dictionary of the dialect containing some 4,000 words.

The visit to the Juaves we considered one of the most important and interesting of our journey.  These people are conservative, and among the least known of the native populations of Mexico.  There are but four towns, with a total population of probably less than three thousand persons.  These towns are situated at a few leagues’ distance from Tehuantepec, near the Pacific, upon narrow tongues of land, washed by salt lagoons.  The nearest, largest, and according to Dr. Castle, the most conservative of the four towns, is San Mateo del Mar.  We had hoped that Dr. Castle might accompany us on our journey.  This, however, was impossible, but he suggested that he would go with us part of the way.  To avoid the great heat, we travelled by night, as there was moonlight.  Hiring a carretero at San Blas, we loaded our materials and instruments into the cart, and started it upon its way.  At about four o’clock in the afternoon, we rode from Tehuantepec, taking a roundabout road in order to see the hill which gives name to the town.  It was Sunday, and many women and girls had been visiting the cemetery, carrying bowls filled with flowers to put upon the graves of friends.  We saw numbers of young fellows sitting by the roadside, and learned that they were the lovers of the young women, awaiting their return from the cemetery.