[Page 70.] El tiempo del hilo azul. This idiom has foiled all whom I have consulted. Dr. Valentine thinks it refers to the season of the year when the verdure reappears after the drouth. F. Diego Duran states that the village conjurors were accustomed to suspend charms to the necks of boys by blue and green threads. (Historia de las Indias de la Nueva España. Tom. II, p. 275.) Thus understood, the time of the blue thread would be equivalent to boyhood.
Campos de los Diriomos. The Mangue word Diriomo means the hill of abundance, or of great fertility. The locality so named is shown on the map, page [xii].
Guayaba. This is the fruit of the guayabo tree, the Psidium pyriferum. It is red in color, and about the size of a small apple.
[Page 72.] A la gorra, literally "for the cap," an idiom meaning that one receives something merely for taking off the cap; a gratuity. Dr. Valentine, however, writes me: "I understand nosotros á la gorra to mean 'then we shall have to do without.'"
VOCABULARY
OF
Nahuatl and Provincial, Unusual or Antiquated Spanish Words.
A