le
eminence, which overlooked a small green valley with a brook running
through it. To my great joy I counted as many as six palm-leaf huts.

The sight refreshed us so marvellously, that we all descended with
rapid, long strides. Every now and then either a cock crowing, a turkey
gobbling, or a dog barking, came as music to our ears, and I can hardly
describe what pleasant feelings these familiar noises produced. As we
went on, the bushes on each side of the path screened our view of the
huts. The neigh of a horse attracted our attention, and a man, mounted
bare-backed, made his appearance about a hundred paces from us.

"Halt!" I cried to my companions.

With my gun hung to my cross-belt, and my hat in hand, I advanced alone
towards the rider, who had suddenly reined in his steed.

"Ave Maria!" said I, going up to him.

"Her holy name be blessed!" answered the horseman, raising his cap, from
which several locks of white hair escaped.

"Do you speak Spanish, venerable father?"

"Yes, a little."

"Are you the chief of the village?"

"What do you want?"

"We require water and a roof to shelter us."

"You are not alone, I see; from whom do you come?"

"We are nothing but travellers wandering through the forests to seek for
plants and animals with healing properties."

"But you are armed?"

"Well, we have a child to protect, and the brutes of the forest are
fierce."

"Are you speaking the truth?"

I then called Lucien, who doffed his hat to the old man and saluted
him.

"Child, may God bless you!"

"Are we to consider ourselves your guests?"

"Yes, you are the guests of Coyotepec; come along with me."

Sumichrast and l'Encuerado also approached the horseman, who dismounted
and then led the way. The latter conversed with the Indian in the Mistec
tongue, an idiom which Lucien alone could understand, he having been
taught it by l'Encuerado. From the way in which the old man scanned us,
I imagined that l'Encuerado had represented us to him as white sorcerers
of no ordinary skill.

Coyotepec--or "Stone Wolf"--might have been about seventy years of age.
He was born in this ravine, to which he had given the name of the
"_Mountain's Mouth_," though I am ignorant of the reason for the
designation. He had been taken, when very young, by one of his uncles to
Puebla, but he had soon left the city with the intention of rebuilding
the paternal hut, and of knowing nothing of the world beyond his own
domain. Hi