had nothing but the breech-clout and hat.  Women wore a skirt, but no upper garment.  Children up to ten and twelve years of age ran naked.  Reaching San Mateo at twelve o’clock, we found the village excited at our non-appearance.  Our carretero had arrived long before with our luggage.  He had told the presidente of our intended coming, and men from the town had been sent through the by-roads to seek for us.  The town lies on a level stretch of sand, and the houses are built of canes and thatched with palm.  Most of the trees in the village are palms; some, cocoa palms.  The plaza is a large open space.  On one side of it is the church, of stone and brick; on another side is the town-building made of brick, covered with plaster, and consisting of three portions,—­the presidencia, curato, and jail.  A brick-paved corridor, roofed above, runs before the whole building.  We were given the jail and presidencia with the corridor.  Here hammocks and a bed of palm stalks were prepared for us, and orders issued that eggs and tortillas should be brought us.  The Juaves raise no crops.  They are fishermen, and their food and living come from the sea.  Their dried fish and shrimps, and the salt, which they make from the brine-soaked bottoms of dried lagoons, go far and wide through the country, and for these they get in trade the corn, coffee, chocolate, and raw cotton which they need.  We have already spoken of their cattle, which is a source of income, though, as stated before, the Juaves rarely eat meat food.

[Illustration:  JUAVE INDIANS; SAN MATEO DEL MAR]

[Illustration:  JUAVE FISHERMAN:  SAN MATEO DEL MAR]

The Juaves present a well-defined physical type.  They are of medium stature or tall.  Their noses are the largest and most prominent in indian Mexico, and are boldly aquiline.  The men are rarely idle; even as they walk, they carry with them their netting, or spindle with which they spin cord for making nets.  It seems to be law, and is certainly custom, that persons coming to the plaza are expected to be more fully dressed than when travelling on the road or when in their homes.  Usually white cotton drawers and shirt are worn in the plaza; outside, practically nothing but the breech-clout.

There is an interesting commerce carried on in Juave towns by Zapotec traders from Juchitan.  As might be expected, this is entirely in the hands of women.  Some women make two journeys weekly between the two towns.  They come in ox-carts, with loads of corn, fodder, coffee, chocolate, cotton and the like.  These they trade or sell.  When they return to Juchitan, they carry with them a lot of salted and dried fish, shrimps, salt and eggs.  Upon these expeditions the whole family accompanies the woman; the traveling is done almost entirely by night.  These Zapotec women are shrewd at bargaining.  They must be doing a paying business.  It was interesting to see the primitive devices for weighing.