Two or three long and slender vines, laid side by side and lashed together, form the footway, which is swung from one tree to another; other lianas are stretched across as side rails, smaller vines being twined in between and around them to hold them in place; long vines, pendant from the high branches of the supporting trees, are fastened to the upper rails to steady and anchor these frail bridges, which swing and yield with every weight.

[Illustration:  TREE FERN IN TROPICAL FOREST; QUEZALTEPEC]

[Illustration:  CASCADE, NEAR QUEZALTEPEC]

Ixcuintepec is upon one of the most abrupt ridges of this whole district.  We went first to the schoolhouse, where our animals were to be guarded in a little open space before it; then we walked over to the curato which was being prepared for us.  We had ordered zacate (fodder) for our animals and had divided it suitably between them.  We ate our own meal, took a turn around the town, and were about to go to our quarters for the night, when Ernst noticed that the fodder, for which we had paid an outrageous price, had completely disappeared from before the two horses, although the pile before the mule had diminished but little.  No doubt the two school teachers could have explained this mysterious disappearance; we could not, however, tax them with theft, but we made so much fuss over the matter that the officials brought a new supply.  While I went to our room to write up my notes, Ernst sat in the gathering darkness watching the animals, as they ate, to prevent further robbery.  I was busily writing, listening now and then to the fierce gusts of a gale that was blowing without, when the door burst open and Ernst, greatly excited, called me to follow, and we hastened to the place where our animals were tied.  There we found that the great tree under which Chontal, the little mule, had been feeding, had been torn by the tempest and half of it had fallen upon the animal, bearing it to the ground.  The crash had come without a moment’s warning.  Fortunately, the mule was unhurt, though it could not move until the branches which had crushed it to the earth had been cut away with axes.  When we had released the beast and were retiring to our quarters, we saw a sight never to be forgotten.  Looking down from our crest into the valley and across upon the other ridges and mountains beyond, we saw that the camp-fires of charcoal-burners and wayfarers had been fanned by the winds and spread into the forest until a dozen great lines of blazing trees lit up the landscape in every direction.

Our leaving Ixcuintepec in the early morning was not agreeable.  The teachers were irritated over the affair of the zacate; the town authorities were dissatisfied with our refusal to pay for two lots of it.  There was grumbling, and many dark looks followed us.  We were rather glad to get away from the town without a serious outbreak.  We were now on the road to the last of the Mixe towns we should