awakened,
and were as delighted as myself. We all got out, and walked for a
considerable distance. An astonishing number of little streams and pools
of fresh water burst forth from the rocks, and cut across the road or
flowed along its sides. Finally, we reached the summit, and began the
descent. This had made no impression on me when I went over it on
horseback, but travelling in an ox-cart was a different matter, and I
shall never again forget it. It was less abrupt than the ascent--less of
vertical zigzag, and more of long steady windings. It also was excavated
in the solid rock. It was badly neglected, and the cart jolted, and
threatened every instant to upset us, or leap into the gulf. Coming
out into a more level district, we passed Paraje and Dolores, reaching
Carizal at five, where we stopped for the day. This is a regular resting
place for _carreteros_, and there were plenty of carts there for the
day.

As soon as the oxen were unyoked, I turned out my companions and lay
down in the cart, trying to get an hour's sleep before the sun should
rise, as I had not closed my eyes since leaving Union Hidalgo two days
before. I was asleep at once, but in less than an hour was awakened
by the assaults of swarms of minute black-flies, whose stings were
dreadful. The rest of the company suffered in the same way, so we all
got up and went to work. A group of _carreteros_ breakfasting, invited
me to eat with them--hard _tortillas, atole_ and salted meat, formed a
much better breakfast than we got, a little later, at the house upon the
hill where travellers eat their meals. At this house they had a little
parrot which was very tame, and also a _chacalacca_, which had been
hatched by a domestic hen from a captured egg. This bird is more slender
and graceful than a hen, but our landlord informed us that its eggs are
much larger than those of the common fowl, and much used for food. Both
this bird and the little parrot regularly fly off with flocks of their
wild fellows, but always come back afterward to the house. This was a
most interesting example of an intermediate stage between true wildness
and domestication. There was little doing throughout the day. Heat,
black-flies, and sunlight all made it impossible to sleep; but we took a
bath in the running brook, and skinned some birds, and tasted _posole_
for the first time. _Posole_ is a mixture of pounded or ground corn and
sugar, of a yellow or brownish color, much like grape-