ZOQUE DANCERS; TUXTLA GUTIERREZ
TZENDALS FROM TENEJAPA; COLD HANDS
The man with whom we had expected to arrange for animals had promised to come to the hotel at seven. He came not then, nor at half-past, nor at eight, nor at nine. When we sent an inquiry, he made the cool reply, that it was now too late to arrange matters; that he would see us at eight the following morning. Furious at his failure, we ourselves went with the boy from the hotel at ten o'clock to his house, but could not get him even to open the door. "To-morrow! To-morrow!" was his cry. Desperate, we went, although it was now almost midnight, to another arriero, who, after some dickering, agreed to leave at eight the following morning, charging a price something more than fifty per cent above the usual rate. Of course he was behindhand, but we actually set out at nine.
CHAPTER XXV
TZOTZILS AND TZENDALS
(1901)
We started out over the hot and dusty road, passing here and there through cuts of the white earth, which is used by the women of Chiapa in their lacquer-work. We soon reached the river, and, leaving our animals behind, to cool before swimming them across, embarked with a dozen other passengers, and all our baggage, in one of the great canoes, which we by no means filled. Landing on the other side, with an hour to wait, we walked down stream, and took a fine bath in the fresh cold, clear, deep water. Just below where we were bathing, some indians had exploded a dynamite cartridge, killing a quantity of fish, and the surface was immediately spotted with their white, upturned bellies. A canoe-load of four men put out to gather the fish, as soon as the shot was fired. Just as they reached the spot, and were leaning over the boat to catch them, the canoe overturned, and all the men were floundering in the water, up to their necks, and the canoe was rapidly drifting down the stream. The fish they get here are quite large, and seem to be a kind of cat-fish. Strolling back to our landing-place, we were interested in the lively scenes there being enacted. Under little arbors of leafy boughs, women were washing clothing; crowds of children, of both sexes, were playing on the sand or splashing in the water; half-a-dozen great canoes were dragged up on the bank, and amid these a group of little brown fellows, from ten to fourteen years of age, were swimming; here and there, a man or woman squatted in the shallow water, dipped water over their bare bodies with jícaras. Now and then the great ferry-boat, loaded with passengers and with animals swimming alongside, made its crossing. Presently our seven animals were swum across, and, after a moment's drying, were repacked and saddled, and we were ready for our forward movement.