ancestors?

The Indian hesitated a moment before making reply.

"It is only a remembrance of my country," he said, after a short
silence. "When I hear the echoes of the Sierra repeat the sounds of my
shell, I can fancy myself among the mountains of Tehuantepec, where I
used to hunt the tiger--in pursuing my profession of _tigrero_. Or at
other times I may fancy it to be the signals of the pearl-seekers in the
Gulf, when I followed the calling of a _buzo_ (diver); for I have hunted
the sea tigers who guard the banks of pearls under the water, as I have
those that ravage the herds of cattle upon the great savannas. But time
passes, cavallero; I must say good day to you. I have to reach the
hacienda of Portezuelo by noon, and it's a long journey to make in the
time. _Puez, adios, cavallero_!"

So saying, the Indian strode off with that measured step peculiar to his
race; and was soon lost to my sight, as he descended into the ravine on
the opposite side of the plateau.

As I returned towards the inn I could hear the prolonged notes of his
marine trumpet rising up out of the chasm, and reverberating afar off
against the precipitous sides of the Sierra Madre.

"What the devil is all this row about?" inquired Captain Ruperto
Castanos, as he issued forth from the venta.

I recounted to him the interview I had just had; and the singular
communications I had received from the Indian.

"It don't astonish me," said he; "the Zapoteques are still more pagan
than Christian, and given to superstitious practices to a greater degree
than any other Indians in Mexico. Our Catholic _curas_ in their
villages are there only for the name of the thing, and as a matter of
formality. The business of the worthy padres among them must be a
perfect sinecure. I fancy I understand what the fellow meant, well
enough. Whenever a Zapoteque woman is about to add one to the number of
their community, the expectant father of the child assembles all his
relations in his cabin; and, having traced out the figures of certain
animals on the floor, he rubs them out one after another in their turn.
That which is being blotted out, at the precise moment when the child is
born, is called its _tona_. They believe that, ever after, the life of
the newborn is connected in some mysterious manner with that of the
animal which is its _tona_; and that when the latter dies so will the
former! The child thus consecrated to the tona, while growing up, seek