Our first glimpse of the town suggested a veritable paradise.  At eleven the sky was clear, the sun almost tropical, the whole country smiled under its warm beams; but at two there came a change.  Fogs, so dense as to shut out the view of what was across the road, drifted down from the summit on which we had seen cloud masses forming.  Deeper and deeper, wetter and wetter, colder and colder grew the mist.  All, wrapped in their thickest blankets, were shivering, crouched upon the ground, trying in vain to keep themselves warm.  At first we thought this might be a rare occasion, but were assured that it is an every-day occurrence, and from our own experience of four or five days, we can easily believe the statement to be true.  How any people can live in such a spot, suffering keenly twenty hours in the day, simply for the four hours of clear sunshine and warmth is inexplicable; and the nights were torments!  Don Guillermo’s house is well built of logs and plaster, but no house could keep out that bitter cold night air which chilled us, as we lay in bed, until we could hardly move.

[Illustration:  DON GUILLERMO AND HIS FAMILY; CHICAHUASTLA]

[Illustration:  GROUP OF TRIQUIS; CHICAHUASTLA]

We have already stated that the people of Chicahuastla are conservative and superstitious.  Our operations of measuring, photographing and bust-making filled the town with alarm and concern.  It was hard enough to get our male subjects; the women were yet more difficult.  At first we failed to secure any, but after we had several times told the town officials that twenty-five women must be forthcoming for measurement, and Don Guillermo had stormed and threatened, the town-government began to plan a mode of carrying out our wishes.  Close by Don Guillermo’s house was the miserable little village plaza, where the women of the town assembled with corn-cakes and other articles for trade.  There, they met the travelling peddlers coming from Tlaxiaco, from Cuquila and the coast, and drove their bargains, mostly a matter of trade, not purchase, with them.  Waiting at the place where we were working, until one or two women were to be seen in the plaza, the town officials separated, going in two directions.  In a few minutes an anxious watcher, from our point of view, might have seen a gradually contracting circle of men surrounding the plaza.  Usually at the same time that this circle was evident to the watcher, it became also evident to the women.  With cries of terror, the poor creatures would start off as fast as their legs would carry them, over the mountain trails, with the whole town government, sixteen strong, in pursuit, with yells and screams.  It was like nothing but the chase of deer by hounds.  Usually, the women, given strength by terror, escaped; but once out of three times, perhaps, the officials returned in triumph with their prisoner in their midst, who was at once measured and then, if need be, photographed.  In course of time these hunts supplied the twenty-five victims desired.