Evening star., 1896-01-18

clung tenaciously when requested to open
and in yielding generally splintered the
wood work in a fresh spot. The second We
hicle was even less promising 1t was
double-seated wagon with SpringleSS
springs, and in the last stages of decay.
Each conveyance had as motive power five
mules, with three leaders abreast, and was
driven by a bandit in sombrero and serape-
The Start for TuIe and Militia.
The little group at the hotel entrance,
consisting of DR.. Leopoldo Batres, conserv-
ator of ancient monuments of Mexico; his
son, bright youngster; the English engi-
neer; Madame and myself, stared at the
Militia procession with dubious eyes. Final
ly Madame after critical examination,
and some hesitation marks the carriage as
her choice of evils. The English engineer
seats himself with our driver, Madame and
/ take the back seat, our drivers whip
cracks sayagely, and off we so for Tule
and Militia. The other vehicle containing
DIR. Batres and his son, and creaking omi-
nously under the burden OF the conServa-
tors portly form, quickly follows. DIR.
Batres Is to stop at the palace of the gov
ernor of Oaxaca to get papers from that offl-
Cial addressed to the municipal authorities
of Tlacolula, and to overtake us at the Big
Tree. The conservator Of ancient monu-
ments had a double mission on this trip.
He was engaged in an inspection OF the
ruins in his charge, In order to see that
they we're in readiness for examination Dy
the Congress of Americanistas, a society
composed largely of Europeans, which ie-
votes itself to the study of American an
tiquitiaS, and which was soon to meet for
the first time in it's history in the new
world, and in the City of Mexico. DIR.
Batres was also enlisted i'll man hunt,
search for typical Zapotecs, to be displayed
as chronological exhibits before the same
Congress of Americanistas. Inasmuch as
he spoke the Indian dialects, Spanish and
French, ard had intimate knowledge
from his official position of the ruins WIS.,
tod 10 nrO n 9 "a q
yalua ole companion on our travels
Oaxaca has reached that stage of munich
pal development in which the streets are
paved with rough cobble stones, and the
only unpleasant bits of travel in our excur-
sion were within Oaxaea's limits, before the
hard, well-beaten dirt road of the country
was reached Upon this thoroughfare our
vehicle moved along smoothly and rapidly,
and the procession of Indian vehicles and
pedestrians which passed on their way
to town kept constantly pleased and in
terested. The Oaxaca typical vehicle Is an
ox-cart, the oxen burdened and adorned
with rude yokes, fastened to the horns and
extending backward over the top of the
head and neck, and the cart numbering
along on clumsy wooden wheels, with mas
sive, far-projecting hubs. Sometimes the
wheel Is IN a single piece, the section of a
tree trunk, and always in the rural d,stricts
1t closely approximates this primitive form.
A Giant Among Trees.
Seven or eight miles from Oaxaca We turn
ed from the mann road INTO a lane running
through a grove of trees, one of the streets
of Tule village, and in less than half a
mile from this point we came to the church
of Santa Maria del Tule and the monster
tree in the churchyard. As one passes
through the gateway which pierces the
high adobe wall surrounding the church en-
closure, he comes face to face with the
mighty ahuehuete or Mexican cypress, and
the sight takes his breath away The vast
bulk of its trunk and branches dwarfs into
iIrsignificance the church standing close by.
1t seems impossible that this area of vege-
table growth should come from a single
shoot, and the fact that the surface OF the
trunk is not smooth and regular, but is
deeply indented with huge ribs standing out
at intervals like the sails of a giant wind
mill. tends to strengthen the impression that
the tree Is a composite, a case of vegetable
Siamese twins, or perhaps the Tule triplets
among trees One NJ. ANA Is quoted as
saying concerning 1t in the last century
that three united truncs form the famous
sabine of Santa Maria del Tule." But later
travellers do T OF coincide with NJ. Anza, and
NJ. Charnay, the French savant, who visit
ed this province when engaged in his world
famous investigations in Chiapas and Yti-
catan, expressly negatives this view With
this preface. let Us plunge at once into fig
ures and announce that according to the
latest measurements Chose made by Camp
bell and given in his Mexican guide), the
circumference of the trunk six feet from