s six children were all married and lived near him, and the
little colony numbered as many as thirty individuals. He was an Indian
of the Tlascalan race, as robust and nimble as a man of forty, of middle
height, with a brown skin. He wore a hat made of palm-tree straw, and
was dressed in a white woollen jacket, fastened in round the waist like
a blouse; cotton drawers, scarcely covering his knees, completed his
costume.
"What is the nearest town to this?" asked Sumichrast.
"Puebla," was the answer.
"How far off is it?"
"About eight days' journey."
As the usual day's journey of the Indian is ten leagues a day, the
distance must have been about eighty leagues.
The old man could not furnish us with any other geographical
information; he had heard the names of Orizava and Tehuacan, but never
having visited these towns, he knew nothing of the distance we were from
them. For forty years, with the exception of the relations of his sons
and daughters-in-law, who paid him a visit annually, we were the first
persons who had disturbed his solitude. We availed ourselves of the
trunk of a tree to cross the brook, when our guide soon stopped in front
of a hut. Four naked children, the eldest of whom might have been ten
years old, inspected us with comical curiosity. They had never before
seen a white man, and although we were dreadfully bronzed, their
surprise was very great. A young woman, whose clothing consisted of a
piece of cloth folded round her hips, saluted us in broken Spanish, and
bid us welcome. The old man introduced us to his eldest son, named
Torribio, a man about forty years of age. His clothing was not quite so
primitive as that of his father, but consisted of slashed trowsers
ornamented with silver buttons, a cotton shirt, and a felt hat covered
with varnished leather. The little colony employed themselves in
collecting cochineal, which Torribio carried to Puebla for sale, and
this fact accounted for his more civilized costume. At length the old
man asked us to come into his hut, round which a large part of his
family were assembling. He called his wife, who was a little old woman,
dressed in a long cotton gown; then he addressed us, pointing to his
children and grandchildren, and said:
"You are my guests; my house is at your disposal, and all my relatives
are your servants."
[Illustration]
CHAPTER XXI.
BLACK SKINS AND WHITE SKINS.--WE HAVE TO TURN CARPENTERS.--L'ENCUERADO
CHANTING AND P
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