8. The mozo who becomes security for another mozo (be it man or woman) assumes the same responsibilities as the one who receives the loan.
This latter clause is inserted because in most instances one labourer goes security for another by guaranteeing that the latter will carry out his part, or he himself will assume it. If the mozo flees, an order of arrest will issue and an officer sent after him. For this purpose an alcalde, or justice, is usually kept on each plantation.
When the labourer once assumes this condition he is generally bound for life, as few of them ever succeed in paying back the loan, and the plantation owner never encourages him to do it for he would lose his labourer. On his part he is obliged to furnish medical attendance, advance wedding, baptismal and burial fees, and, on the larger plantation, to furnish a spiritual guide and teacher for the youth. It is a sort of patriarchal relationship that exists between employer and employee. The native will not work more than about two hundred days in the year because of the numerous church and national holidays which he must celebrate; likewise, every birth, death, and baptism in the family gives another occasion for a holiday, and the saint’s day of each member of his family as well as those of the master must be celebrated. Every person is named after a saint, and they are surprised to find an American who has not been named after any. “Who will protect and keep you from harm?” they will ask.
The Indians in the hot country are less inclined to work than those on the uplands, and one sees much of them. In fact you could not look in their direction without seeing a great deal of them, for they wear no superfluous clothing. The men frequently wear only a breech-cloth, the women a short skirt, and no more. In fact, in travelling from the coast to capital you pass through an entire evolution in the matter of clothing from practical nakedness to a complete suit of sandals, trousers and shirt. The dictator Barrios issued a decree requiring all natives to wear sufficient clothes, or his market produce would be confiscated when he entered a town. Even to this day it is not an uncommon sight in some places to see the aborigine sitting by the roadside near Retalhuleu, or Mazatenango, and enveloping himself, or herself, in sufficient clothing to pass municipal inspection. In the colder altitudes where clothing is more necessary for physical comfort, each tribe has a distinct dress and the district from which the Indian comes can be told by a glance at his outfit. In the hot country, those who dress at all wear simply a white cotton shirt and trousers.
A CARGADOR ON THE ROAD.
The Indians are obliged by law to do carrying work across the country when desired and paid for their services. If the traveller is unable to get a cargador, an appeal to the proper official will secure one within a reasonable time. That official will, if necessary, arrest a man and lock him up over night in the cabildo, in order to have him on hand when wanted. They can only be obliged to go about a two days’ journey from home and carry a hundred pounds. Their wages are only a few cents per day in gold, so that their services do not come very high. In case of attempted overcharge the Jefe (local governor) will settle all disputes, and he is generally very fair in his conclusions. Many of the cargadors use a framework called a carcaste in which to carry their loads.
If one desires to engage a cargador it is necessary to give him enough time to prepare tortillas for the journey. With a basket of these, a plenteous supply of coffee, a cup, and a few twigs for fire, the Indian is ready for the journey. He will not need to buy anything on the road except some fruit or a little “white-eye,” the native brandy. Their excuse for this extra would be like the old Guatemalan, who said: “One wants to get rid of his memory once in a while.” At night they light their fires either in the public hall, or out-of-doors under the brilliant starlit canopy, where they make their coffee and warm their tortillas. Embers of these fires may be seen on every hand as one journeys across the country. The men are unobtrusive, and even when gathered together in considerable numbers they are quiet if any strangers are present. Among themselves, however, they are gay and light-hearted and seem to enjoy life.
These cargadors are an ancient and honourable institution in Central America. From time immemorial they have transported baggage and produce from one part of the country to another, and they rather look upon the encroachment of railroads with disfavour, for it will curtail their business. They will carry a mule’s load of one hundred and fifty pounds at even a greater speed, averaging five or six miles an hour, for they travel at a sort of jog trot. Some of the couriers in olden times were very fleet of foot for they used to be kept busy in time of war before the introduction of the telegraph. President Rufino Barrios had a runner in his employ of whom it is said that he carried a dispatch thirty-five leagues into the interior and returned an answer in thirty-six hours, making the two hundred and ten miles over mountains at the rate of six miles an hour, including stops and delays for food and sleep. When equipped for the road these men wear a costume consisting of short trousers, like bathing-trunks, a white cotton shirt and sandals made of cowhide.
