CHAPTER XII.
The Sierra Madre.—Todos Santos.—Evening Prayer (La Oracion).—Indian domestic habits.—Religious devotion.—Goitre.—Jacaltenango.—Indian Festival.—A Temblor.—Indian Idolatry.—Custom of ancient inhabitants to serve the parents whose daughters they wished to marry.—Doubtful fidelity of my guide.—Condition of Mule.—Mexican Frontier.—Comitan.—Note on President Juarez, and the Execution of the Emperor Maximilian.
On our way to Jacaltenango we had to cross the Sierra Madre, a range of mountains which traverses the centre of Guatemala. The mule track led us over some steep and rugged ascents, and through a long and deep barranca filled with a cold damp mist. During the greater part of the day we were enveloped in clouds which covered the summits of the hills. We finally reached the hamlet of Todos Santos, and obtained shelter at an Indian rancho.
Towards nightfall we heard the distant bell of the chapel ringing for evening prayer.[71] The Indians stood in front of their huts, and looking in the direction of the sound of the bell, recited the Ave Maria. This is one of the religious customs taught by the Spanish friars that retains its influence upon the inhabitants of these remote highlands.
Barranca, Central America.
Indian Huts.
Darkness rapidly succeeds daylight in tropical latitudes, and upon my return to the rancho I observed that the hut was lighted by a method mentioned by the early historians of the conquest as having been in universal use amongst the Mexican Indians. In the centre of the room was a rude wooden stand, upon which was placed crosswise, a lighted piece of resinous pinewood. The flame gave a sufficient light for all practical purposes. After turning into my hammock, I watched by the fitful glare of the firebrand, the domestic habits of the Indians. The first thing done, was to put the child to bed, and this was managed in the following manner:—The mother wrapped the child tightly in swaddling clothes, until it looked like a mummy. The head was left exposed. It was then fastened upon a flat board about three feet high and eighteen inches wide. This board was put upright against an angle of the wall. The child remained throughout the night perfectly quiet. The bed upon which the father and mother slept, was a low wide frame resting on four legs, and raised a few inches above the ground. Everything was of the rudest simplicity. The smoke from the fire rose directly upwards and escaped through the roof.
In the morning, while Carlos was making a cup of chocolate, the Indian came to my side and said that he wished to ask me a question about the people who lived beneath the earth (abaxo). He had been told, that men like ourselves were living and moving about below us, and he could not understand how this was possible. I endeavoured to explain to him that the world was round, and that on the other side of the earth beneath, things were much the same as at Todos Santos. My attempts to teach the laws of gravitation were, however, not successful, and he went away in a state of bewilderment, probably under the impression that the people below were upside down.