The Municipality took measures some time since to have Amecameca, which numbers 1,500 inhabitants, lighted with petroleum, their finances precluding gas; but, alas! they had counted without the rateros, who on the very first night spread over the city, put out simultaneously all the lamps and carried them off. But I hear some one ask, what is a ratero? A ratero is ubiquitous and essentially an American institution. His strength as a thief lies in being a member of a very “long firm.” He is always to be found in crowds, whether in the market-place, church, or theatre; he penetrates ill-closed houses, whence he takes anything valuable; he strips railway carriages of their fixtures, and railways of their wooden rails—the largest beams are not safe from his grasp; horses and cattle are frequently driven from one district to be sold in another by the ratero. Rateros hardly ever miss a party crossing the Cordilleras, and they take care to be in sufficient numbers to ensure victory. It was a ratero who carried off Julian’s box, and a ratero had eased me of £20.
HACIENDA OF TOMACOCO.
The immediate attraction of Amecameca is Monte-Sacro, a volcanic hill, fire-rent, rising from the centre of the town to a height of 325 feet. There is a grotto which was turned into a hermitage at the time of the Conquest. The place soon acquired great celebrity for holiness on account of miracles which were performed thereat; chapels, churches, and a good road with the twelve stations of the Cross, were erected by the piety and for the accommodation of devotees who came hither from all parts, and who, not satisfied with visiting the Monte-Sacro during their lifetime, often desired to be buried in the cemetery fronting the church, so that it is over-crowded.
The tombs are covered with cement and perfectly flat, with rude drawings made by the friends of the dead, who scratch with their hands and bare feet certain figures whilst the plaster is soft; but although I inquired of several people, I could obtain no satisfactory answer regarding the origin of this peculiar custom. The branches of the surrounding trees, as indeed those on the road up to the Cross, are hung with ex-votos of the oddest description: small crosses, bits of thread, coloured stuff, dead flowers, tangled hair, reminding one of offerings around Japanese temples. The view from the top of the hill is very fine and extensive, and the ascent has been made both easy and pleasant by a winding road planted with cypress trees to the north, and to the south side with ilexes of enormous size.
We were detained here by the weather, which was simply abominable, and also by the difficulty of procuring saddle-horses, mules to carry our baggage, and men inured by long experience to live and work in this rarefied atmosphere.
It was not without a feeling of deep satisfaction that we saw our last mule and our last man loaded ready to start. Our two best men are brothers, both of whom have been employed in the sulphur-mines of Popocatepetl, one as foreman for the last eight-and-twenty years, and the other even longer. The five remaining Indians are also “volcaneros,” accustomed to live at an altitude of 13,000 to 17,550 feet above the level of the sea.
At last every man is at his post, and we begin slowly the ascent of the mountain.
