NO MORE "LOTERIA."
[CHAPTER XXX.]
POTTERY AND HAMMOCK MARKETS.—HAMMOCKS IN YUCATAN; THEIR GENERAL USE FOR SLEEPING PURPOSES.—YUCATEO SALUTATIONS.—AN AWKWARD SITUATION.—FASHIONABLE, MESTIZO, AND INDIAN BALLS.—CHARACTERISTIC INDIAN DANCES.—WORSHIP OF THE SUN AMONG THE ANCIENT YUCATEOS.—NATIVE MUSIC.—ZOPILOTE DANCE.—VISIT TO A HENEQUIN HACIENDA.—THE VOLAN COCHÉ; A VEHICLE OF THE COUNTRY.—A RACE AND HOW IT ENDED.—ARRIVAL AT THE HACIENDA.—THE SCRAPING AND BALING MACHINERY.—STARTING A PLANTATION.—PRICE OF THE FIBRE IN THE MARKET.—"NO MONEY IN THE BUSINESS."—FIBRE-FACTORIES IN YUCATAN.—HOW THE OWNERS OF ESTATES LIVE.
HAMMOCK LODGINGS IN THE COUNTRY.
"The market we have described," wrote Fred, "is for the sale of articles of food only. There is another market where pottery, cotton fabrics, and other miscellaneous wares are sold, and still another which is entirely given up to the makers and venders of hats and hammocks. Hammock-making is a great industry in Yucatan, and thousands of these articles are sent to New York, London, and other foreign ports. A curious circumstance about this industry is that the best hammocks are those for home consumption; the foreign markets are unwilling to pay the prices of the fine qualities, and consequently none are sent away except upon special orders. When you next buy a Yucatan hammock in New York you may make up your mind that it is one in which only a very poor man here would sleep.