"_Que es esto_!" repeated an old Tzapotecan, with long grey hair
curling from under his _sombrero_, and a withered but finely marked
countenance. "_Las aguas! El ouracan!_ In seven hours the deluge and
the hurricane!"

"_Vamos, por la Santissima!_ For the blessed Virgin's sake let us be
gone!" cried a dozen of the Mexicans, pushing two green boughs into
our very faces.

"What are those branches?"

"From the tempest-tree--the prophet of the storm," was the reply.

And Tzapotecans and women, arrieros and servants, ran about in the
utmost terror and confusion, with cries of "_Vamos, paso redoblado_!
Off with us, or we are all lost, man and beast," and saddling,
packing, and scrambling on their mules. And before Rowley and I knew
where we were, they tore us away from our iguana and coffee, and
hoisted and pushed us into our saddles. Such a scene of bustle and
desperate hurry I never beheld. The place where the encampment had
been was alive with men and women, horses and mules, shouting,
shrieking and talking, neighing and kicking; but with all the
confusion there was little time lost, and in less than three minutes
from the first alarm being given, we were scampering away over stock
and stone, in a long, wild, irregular sort of train.

The rapidity and excitement of our ride seemed to have the effect of
calming our various sufferings, or of making us forget them; and we
soon thought no more of the fever, or of stings or musquitto bites. It
was a ride for life or death, and our horses stepped out as if they
knew how much depended on their exertions.

In the hurry and confusion we had been mounted on horses instead of
our our own mules; and splendid animals they were. I doubt if our
Virginians could beat them, and that is saying a great deal. There was
no effort or straining in their movements; it seemed mere play to them
to surmount the numerous difficulties we encountered on our road. Over
mountain and valley, swamp and barranca, always the same steady
surefootedness--crawling like cats over the soft places, gliding like
snakes up the steep rocky ascents, and stretching out with prodigious
energy when the ground was favourable; yet with such easy action that
we scarcely felt the motion. We should have sat in the roomy Spanish
saddles as comfortably as in arm-chairs, had it not been for the
numerous obstacles in our path, which was strewed with fallen trees
and masses of rock. We were obliged to be perpetually stoop