come out of them,
and that no doubt young parrots were in the nests. Immediately there was
great excitement, for Manuel had all along wanted to capture a parrot to
take home with him. The party stopped, and stones were thrown to drive
out the birds, but with no result. Finally Mariano climbed the tree,
creeping out along the branches almost to the nest; just at that moment
an unusually well-aimed stone struck the nest, but instead of parrots,
out streamed a great cloud of wasps, which flew straight towards the
_mozo_, who lost no time in getting down from his precarious position.

[Illustration: VIEW IN QUEZALTEPEC]

We found Ixcuintepec almost deserted; hardly any of the town officials
were there. Almost everyone was off, working in the coffee _fincas_.
We quickly saw that we had made a great mistake in waiting for our
remaining subjects until this town. Not only were men conspicuous by
their absence, but the women were extremely hostile. They objected to
our photographing their houses or themselves. They drove the messenger
whom I had sent to measure a house, for the purpose of making a
miniature reproduction, off the premises with clubs. The _mozos_, who
had accompanied us thus far, had no intention of going farther, and the
problem of getting carriers--which had troubled us ever since we had
left Mitla--assumed serious proportions. It was with great difficulty
and much bluster that we secured the food we needed and the _mozos_.
When the _mozos_ came, three out of the four whom it was necessary
for us to employ, were mere boys, the heartiest and best of whom was
scarcely ten years old. In vain we declared that it was impossible for
such little fellows to carry the burdens that needed transportation. It
was plain that they were our only resource. Starting the three boys
upon a short cut to San Miguel, the oldest _mozo_ and ourselves went by
another road to Coatlan. It was fortunate for us that the school-teacher
at this town was interested in our work. We took possession of the
schoolhouse, showed our orders to the officials, and, after much
difficulty, obtained our wishes. The town was almost as deserted as had
been Ixcuintepec, but after infinite difficulty, we succeeded in getting
sufficient subjects to complete our work.

We had thought ourselves unfortunate at Ixcuintepec and Coatlan; the
worst lay before us. We found San Miguel deserted. Our three _mozos_ who
had been paid, and ordered to go simply to that vil