the edge. It might,
however, be decorated with a number of very small geometrical, floral,
and animal figures, worked in brown, purple and blue, which were never
so crowded as to destroy the white background. At 9:30 we reached the
schoolhouse and called out the teacher, to whom we delivered a letter
which the _presidente_ of Pahuatlan had given us for him. He summoned
the town authorities and we made known our wish to see some of the bark
paper. At first there was some hesitancy, but, at last, an old woman
produced two sheets which, she said, she made the day before. At our
wish she then brought out the _tabla_, or board of wood on which the
beating is done, and the stone for beating. The latter was smaller than
the ancient beating-stone, and not grooved upon the beating surfaces; it
had, however, the side notches for convenient holding in the hand. The
board on which the beating is done is smooth, and is constantly cleaned
and soaped. Two kinds of bark are used, _moral_ and _xalama_, the former
giving white, the latter a purplish paper. The bark is thoroughly washed
with lye-water taken from soaked maize; it is then washed with fresh
water and thoroughly boiled; it is split into thin strips which are
carefully arranged upon the board. First the border is laid out the size
of the sheet to be made; then, within this, strips are laid lengthwise,
side by side. All of this is then beaten with the stone until the sheet
of paper results. The paper when finished, presents two sides quite
different from each other; one, smooth and finished, is the surface that
was below in the beating, while the other, rougher, is the one that was
beaten with the stone. The sheets are dried in the sun, carefully folded
into convenient size, and done up in packages of a dozen, which are sold
to the indians in all the country round about. We secured seventeen
dozen sheets of this paper, and samples of the bark, and the board and
stone used in the beating.

While arrangements were being made for showing us these details
regarding paper-making, we visited the village church, which was very
mean and bare; we were disappointed to find nothing suspicious in the
way of _munecos_. It was suggested that we should visit the _oratorio_,
where we found more. Here they held their _costumbre_ in June, or
thereabouts. Saints were arranged in the back of the room on a raised
altar; in front of this, running through the middle of the room, was a
table on which