t of a luxury which, to Mexicans, is more necessary than their
daily bread. No sooner had his companion turned his back, than he drew
from his pocket two pieces of achiote wood,[35] and rubbing them together
with astonishing rapidity, obtained fire in as short a time as it could
have been done by the more usual agency of flint and steel. Taking
possession of the cigar, he lit it, and had just begun to inhale the smoke
with all the gusto of a connoisseur, when the rightful owner of the
coveted morsel emerged from the thicket with two fragments of dry wood in
his hand.

"_Maldito gojo! Picaro! Infame!_" vociferated the aggrieved Zambo, on
beholding his cigar in the wrong mouth. The smoker had very prudently
secured his comrade's machete, and now began to fly before the angry
countenance of his enraged comrade.

"_Paciencia, Senor!_" cried he, dodging about and panting for breath.
"Patience, most excellent sir! I will return you ten cigars, nay, a
hundred, a thousand--so soon as I can get them."

"_Que te lleven todos los demonios de los diez y siete infiernos!_"
screamed the other, who had seized his club and commenced furious pursuit
of the robber. Both of them ran several times round the huge block of
porphyry, but the distance between them was diminishing, and there seemed
every probability that the thief's love of tobacco would cost him dear,
when a thundering "_Halto!_" from the thicket, brought both Zambos to a
dead stop.

"_Que es esto?_ What is this?" cried a voice.

"_Mi General--no--perdon--capitan!_" stammered the pursuer; "he has stolen
my cigar."

The captain himself now issued from the copse, walked gravely up to the
thief, took the half-consumed cigar from his mouth, and placed it in his
own; then, stepping forward to the edge of the barranca, he listened a few
moments, pointed down into the yawning chasm, and drew himself quickly
backwards. His movements were imitated by the Zambos, who gazed for a
short space on the windings of the barranca, through which meanders the
old road to Cholula, made by Cortes, and then sprang back with the
exclamation, "_Mulos y arrieros!_"

From among the windings of the above-named road, which is scarcely
passable even for mules from the depths of ravines, and from amidst rocks
and precipices, the pleasant tinkling of bells now ascended through the
clear elastic air to the mountain summit on which the three men were
posted. Presently the mules became visible, apparent