this district is a little creature
more brightly colored, with a smaller head, which is less markedly flat,
and with smaller fangs; he showed us one of these, not more than a foot
in length, from whose bite a man on the plantation, a year before,
had died. In telling us of this event, he gave us a suggestion of the
working of the contract-labor system; the man who died owed one hundred
and forty pesos of work--almost three years of labor; the _jefe_,
indeed, had sent the son to work out the debt, but the young man soon
ran away, and the most diligent effort to recapture him had failed.

[Illustration: CHOL WOMEN; LA TRINIDAD]

Perhaps two hundred persons lived as workmen on the _finca_ of El
Triunfo. They were, of course, all indians, and were about evenly
divided between Tzendals and Chols; it was impossible to gather them for
measurement till Sunday, when they all came to the house and the store.
It was a day of amusement and recreation for the laborers, a day when
all of them--men, women, children--drank quantities of liquor. It was
interesting to watch them as they came up to the store to make their
little purchases for the week. All were in their best clothing, and
family groups presented many interesting scenes. On Sundays and fiestas,
they play _toro_--one man creeping into a framework of light canes
covered with leather, meant to represent a bull, while others play the
part of bull-fighters. The Chols present a well-marked type. They are
short, broad-headed and dark-skinned; their noses are among the
most aquiline in Mexico. Men, especially those of Tumbala, have a
characteristic mode of cropping the hair; that on the back of the head
is cut close, leaving the hair of the forward third of the head longer.
The men are almost immediately recognized, wherever met, by the
characteristic _camisa_, made of white cotton, vertically striped with
narrow lines of pink, which is woven in the Chol towns, and does not
appear to be used by other Indians.

The doors of the hospitable home at El Triunfo are ever open, and a day
rarely passes without some traveller seeking shelter and entertainment.
Spaniards, Mexicans, Germans, Englishmen, Americans, all are welcome,
and during the few days of our stay, the house was never free of other
visitors. Among these was Stanton Morrison, famous in Yale's football
team in '92; he now lives in this district, and has a coffee _finca_
four hours' ride away.

Finally, at 10:10 Tuesday m