possession of the
atmosphere. The shivering _peones_ of the villages rise betimes to
catch the sun's first rays, and stand or squat against the eastern side
of their adobe huts, what time the orb of day shows his red disc above
the far horizon. _La capa de los pobres_--"the poor man's cloak"--they
term the sun, as with grateful benediction they watch his coming, and
stamp their sandalled feet.

[Illustration: THE GREAT PLATEAU: NIGHTFALL IN THE DESERT.]

Impressive and melancholy is the nightfall upon the Great Plateau. The
opalescent tints of the dying day, and the scarlet curtains flung
across the Occident at the sun's exit give place to that indescribable
depth of purple of the high upland's sky. The faint ranges of hills
which bound the distant horizon take on those diminishing shades which
their respective distances assign them, and stand delicately,
ethereally, against the waning colours of the sunset, whilst the
foreground rocks are silhouetted violet-black against the desert floor.
The long shadows which were projected across the wilderness, and the
roseate flush which the setting sun had cast upon the westward-facing
escarpments behind us, have both disappeared together. Impenetrable
gloom lurks beneath the faces of the cliffs, the mournful howl of the
_coyotes_ comes across the plain, and their slinking forms emerge from
the shadow of the rocks. There is a shapeless heap, the carcass of some
dead mule or ox, some jetsam of the desert, lying near at hand, at
which my horse was uneasy as I drew rein in contemplation, and which
explains the nearness of the beasts of prey, and the long line of
_zopilotes_, or buzzards, which I had observed to cross the fading
gleam of the firmament. All is solitary, deserted, peaceful. The day is
done, the night has come, "in which no man can work."

At daylight the uncultivated desert gives place to human habitations;
and we approach the _hacienda_ of a large landowner, with its irrigated
plantations, and adobe buildings which form the abodes of the workers.
All around are vast fields of _maguey_, or plantations of cotton,
stretching as far as can be seen. Great herds of cattle, rounded up by
picturesque _vaqueros_ with silver-garnished saddles and strange hats
and whirling lassoes, paw the dusty ground, shortly to writhe beneath
the hot imprint of the branding-iron. Long irrigation ditches, brimming
with water from some distant river, and fringed with trees, wind away
among