charged. But these arrangements for
defence did not by any means produce a gloomy effect, as they would had
we encountered them in a country-house in our own part of the world--for
similar defence arrangements are found in every hacienda in Mexico at
the present day, and even I, though my stay in the country had been so
short, already had become accustomed to them.

A buzzing chatter of talk, in which women's voices predominated, ceased
suddenly as we entered the court; and from the swaying and twitching of
the curtains hanging in the front of the openings leading into several
of the rooms, we inferred that we were undergoing a keen inspection. In
response to a call from Tizoc, some men-servants came out from one of
the rooms and received his order to prepare food for us; and he then led
us to a large room in a corner of the court that was arranged very
delightfully as a bath. Here was a great stone tank, twenty feet or so
square, and with a slanting bottom, so that the depth of it ranged from
two feet to nearly five, in which was fresh running water; and over the
portion of the room that the tank occupied there was no roof but the
bright blue sky. On the stone floor were beautifully woven mats, and
towels of cotton cloth hung upon pegs driven into the walls, and in
earthen bowls were fresh pieces of a saponaceous root that I have seen
the like of in use among the Indians of New Mexico. It seemed to strike
Tizoc as odd that we preferred to make use of the bath successively
rather than all together; but he was too polite a man to interpose any
objections to our eccentricities. Pablo only--coming last of all of
us--had a companion in his bathing in the person of El Sabio; and the
sleekness of that excellent animal, when Pablo had brushed carefully his
long coat when his bath was ended, was a wonder to behold.

Being thus refreshed, we heartily welcomed the excellent meal that was
served to us in the cool shade of the veranda by which the court-yard
was surrounded. Our eating was somewhat in the Roman fashion, for the
table was a broad slab of stone, raised but a little from the ground,
and around it we reclined upon mats, with cushions woven of rushes to
lean upon. The food was excellent--a small animal of the deer species,
but no larger than a hare, roasted whole; birds very like quails,
delicately broiled; little cakes made of maize, which were rather like
the hoe-cakes of our Southern negroes than _tortillas_; some sor