ious sorts which must have been near to a hundred and fifty pounds.
As profit on all their chickens, eggs, vegetables, pottery, and fruit,
they could hardly average more than a dollar to each individual. How
simple and circumscribed must be the necessities of a people who can
sustain themselves upon such earnings! When on the road, these Indians
have a peculiarly rapid gait, a sort of dog-trot, so to speak, which
they will keep up for hours at a time while carrying their heavy
burdens. Though they all speak Spanish, yet each tribe or section of
country seems to have a dialect of its own, which is used exclusively
among its people. Scientists tell us that the various languages and
dialects spoken by the Indian race of Mexico in the several parts of the
republic number over one hundred; there are sixty which are known to
have become extinct.

In contradistinction to the theories of many careful observers,
scientists have pointed to the fact that in all of these native tongues
not one word can be found which gives indication of Asiatic origin.

While at Silao a Mexican sand-spout, a visitant which is very liable to
appear on the open plains during the dry season, struck in our immediate
vicinity, followed by a fierce dust-storm, which lasted for about an
hour, darkening the atmosphere to a night-hue for miles around, and
covering every exposed article or person with a thick layer of fine
sand. It was necessary promptly to close all doors and windows. Indeed,
a person could more easily face a furious hail-storm, than one of these
dry gales; men and animals alike sought shelter from its blinding
fierceness. So men, horses, and camels, composing the caravans which
cross the desert of Sahara, when struck by a sand-storm, are obliged to
throw themselves flat upon the ground, and there remain until it has
exhausted its fury. The condition of the soil at Silao may be easily
imagined when it is remembered that rain had not fallen here for seven
months. It was late in March, but the rainy season does not begin until
about the last of May. In this region people do not speak of summer and
winter, but of the dry and the rainy seasons, the former being reckoned
from November to May, and the latter from June to October. It should not
be understood that it rains constantly in the wet season. The rain falls
generally in pleasant showers, afternoons and nights, leaving the
mornings and forenoons bright, clear, and comfortable. It is really