nd block, perhaps ten
inches long and three inches in diameter; these are hollowed out below,
so that two thin lips only are left above, which, when struck, give out
far more musical tones than one might expect. The two nights that we
were at Huehuetla, we saw men and women fishing in the stream; carrying
blazing torches in their left hands, they waded out into the water and
watched to see the dark bodies of the fish against the pebbly bottom of
the stream; in the right hand they carried a _machete_, about a foot in
length, with which they stabbed the fish, rarely missing.

We were now ready for the last tribe of the season, the Totonacs of
Pantepec. Pantepec is in the district of Huachinango, and we had no
order from the _jefe_; Don Valentino, the _presidente_ of Huehuetla,
said, however, that the _presidente_ of Pantepec was his friend, and
that he would give us a letter of introduction, which would serve all
purposes. As we were to return by Huehuetla, we left the busts which we
had made, and all but our most necessary baggage, at Don Pablo's house.
Though we started at ten, we took the journey slowly, photographing and
hunting birds. The road was a trail in a ravine, with all the beautiful
scenery with which we now were so familiar. At one point we saw a
curious phenomenon. The cliff rose vertically from the water's edge, at
a place where the stream made a right angle; this cliff consisted of
almost horizontal strata of varying hardness, so that some of the layers
were worn a little more than others, leaving these projecting. In the
space between these projecting layers, round river-pebbles, from the
size of hen's eggs up to the size of a man's fist, were firmly wedged,
so that it was with difficulty that they could be dislodged. Not a few,
but hundreds of the pebbles, were thus wedged, so regularly and firmly
that we could not believe the work to be that of nature, but suspected
human hands. We learned, however, that nature really had done the work,
on the occasion of a flood, the result of a cloud-burst, which swept
into the valley two or three years before. At several places in this
stream, we saw groups of from two or three to ten or twelve Totonac
indians, who were fishing with little nets. Our trail led back and forth
across this stream many times, and before we reached Pantepec we had
made thirty-nine crossings. From our last crossing, we climbed a steep
ascent, passing the little village of Tenasco, and found