The secretario chanced to be a man whom I had met at Cuicatlan the year before.  He recalled our work, and taking us to his own house, we soon had an excellent dinner.  He seemed to be well-to-do, and had two houses built of slabs lashed vertically together.  Nets full of jicaras, great stacks of corn neatly laid out, good tableware in quantity, and a kerosene-lamp, all were evidences of his wealth.  We ate at a good table, in the house, where the corn was stored.  The most astonishing thing, however, in the house was an old-fashioned piano, long beyond use.  How it was ever brought over the mountains to this village is a wonder.  When we asked him, what we were to pay for the dinner, he replied, nothing; that we would begin to pay later.  The impression made upon us by San Pedro was more agreeable than that produced by Zautla.  The town government is large and vigorous, comprising a dozen well-built young fellows.  On account of the church festival, plenty of subjects had been brought together.  We did not understand what the secretario expected, and therefore took up our quarters at the town-house.  We paid dearly for our misunderstanding.  We waited long for supper, but none came.  The presidente and the older men were at church.  The secretario was nowhere to be found.  While we were waiting, the young fellows who were making candles, and a crowd of boys, crouched about the fire and watched the work.  Presently they lay down a couple of serapes on the floor, and the whole group, eighteen or twenty in number, dropped down upon them, a perfect mass of humanity, packed close together in the most curiously twisted attitudes, and were fast asleep in no time.  They had no covering, but seemed to keep each other warm.  After they were fast asleep, some of the other men appeared, and we urged the bringing in of supper.  A handful of tortillas and two fried eggs were not a hearty meal for six hungry persons, nor were our sleeping accommodations satisfactory.  With difficulty we got some mats, and I lay down upon the smaller table, Frank on the larger, Louis and Manuel rolled up on the ground below the latter, and Ramon and the mozo on the long bench.  Half a dozen of the older men remained sitting about the fire.  It can be understood that the room was fairly full.  The men made no pretense of sleeping until past ten o’clock, and two or three times during the night they broke out into loud conversation.

[Illustration:  CHINANTEC GIRL SPINNING; SAN JUAN ZAUTLA]

[Illustration:  CHINANTEC WEAVING; SAN JUAN ZAUTLA]