A NATIVE VILLAGE
Vasco and Harlan were each given a drink of the partially boiled cane-juice, which they found very pleasant to the taste.
"After the boiling is completed," the old woman told them, "the sugar is run into wooden moulds and then wrapped in plantain leaves, when it is ready for the market."
Harlan and Vasco were next taken to visit an aged woman who in years gone by had been a cook in Señor Herreras's father's household. This woman was said to be nearly a century old, and could tell the boys much of the ancient customs and habits of Panama.
The house in which she lived was like many of the native huts. It was very simply built. Four trees about six inches in diameter had been cut down, the branches lopped off, and a Y-shaped fork left at the tops. These four trees were set deep into the earth as corner posts. Side pieces were lashed on top with withes. The roof was made of small saplings thatched with native grasses, bunches of which overlapped each other like shingles.
In this particular hut there were two rooms, and an attic overhead, though many houses have no upper room. The sides of the hut were made of plaited split bamboo, and the chinks were filled with mud.
The old woman always welcomed the visits of Jago and Alfeo, and she was also glad to see the two young strangers. They found it easy to enter into conversation with her. She told how the Indians in her youthful days used to adorn their bodies with figures of birds, beasts, and trees. The women did the painting and took great delight in it. The men also wore a crescent-shaped metal plate over the lip, attached to the nose, and the women wore a ring in the same manner.
"What were the rings made of?" asked Vasco.