aily at daybreak, armed
with slender sticks, climbing rugged heights with grace and agility,
to get the pithaya, which tastes better when plucked at dawn, fresh
and cool, than when gathered during the heat of the day. The fruit,
which lasts about a month, comes when it is most needed, at the height
of the dry season (June), when the people have a regular feasting-time
of it. Mexicans also appreciate the pithaya, and servants frequently
abscond at that time, in order to get the fruit. The beautiful white
flowers of the plant are never found growing on the north side of
the stem.

With the Indians, the pithaya enters, of course, into religion,
and the beautiful macaw (guacamaya), which revels in the fruit,
is associated with it in their beliefs. The bird arrives from its
migration to southern latitudes when the pithaya is in bloom, and
the Indians think that it comes to see whether there will be much
fruit; then it flies off again to the coast, to return in June,
when the fruit is ripe. The following gives the trend of one of the
guacamaya songs: "The pithaya is ripe, let us go and get it. Cut off
the reeds! [4] The guacamaya comes from the Tierra Caliente to eat
the first fruits. From far away, from the hot country, I come when
the men are cutting the reeds, and I eat the first fruits. Why do
you wish to take the first fruits from me? They are my fruits. I eat
the fruit, and I throw away the skin. I get filled with the fruit,
and I go home singing. Remain behind, little tree, waving as I alight
from you! I am going to fly in the wind, and some day I will return
and eat your pithayas, little tree!"

Chapter X

Nice-looking Natives--Albinos--Ancient Remains in Ohuivo--Local
Traditions, the Cocoyomes, etc.--Guachochic--Don Miguel and
"The Postmaster"--A Variety of Curious Cures--Gauchochic
Becomes My Head-quarters--The Difficulty of Getting an Honest
Interpreter--False Truffles--The Country Suffering from a Prolonged
Drought--A Start in a Northwesterly Direction--Arrival at the
Pueblo of Norogachic.

Followed the river a day's journey up and noticed some small tobacco
plantations on the banks. I met some good-looking people, who had come
from Tierras Verdes, the locality adjoining on, the south. Their
movements were full of action and energy. Their skins showed a
tinge of delicate yellow, and as the men wore their hair in a braid,
they had a curious, oriental appearance. The women