The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1897-10-09

a constant PROCESSION or Indians coming from
the adjacent villages on their accustomed
jcg-trot. with all sorts Of supplies for tho
metropolitan market, wood, vegetables, fruit,
pottery, hay, coal. what not, in enormous
loads on the heads and backs Of men and
women. 1t is noticeable that they always
walk in groups, the men by themselves and
the women by themselves, as at Quaker
meeting; and that while the men Invariably
carry their burdens on their backs, the Wom-
Gil carry theirs on the head-probably be-
cause their backs are preoccupied by the in
evitable baby. slung in shawl or square of
cotton cloth. The baby, by the way, is never
left at home. Whether the mother is going
to market to sell chickens and vegetables, or
to church to hear mass and confess her sins,
o. to funeral to weep and wall in the pro-
cesslon, the baby goes too, as much part Of
the outfit as her own head or feet.
Primitive Methods 'Of Agriculture.
Another strange thing is that one never
hears Que OF these Indian babies laugh or cry.
They seem to be born as old as their fathers
and mothers, and infinitely wiser The larg-
or children are never seen running and play
ing as our children DO: they are always grave
and serious, as if a weight CT years and re-
sponsibility rested heavily on their small
shoulders. Both boys and girls begin to
work as soon as they can walk and seem to
have no conception of fun or sport. We passed
through several dreamy little Indian villages,
each with matched church and plaza and mud
huts fenced with cacu and bamboo, among
than Mixco, high up in the hills. whose wom-
en- are said to the handsomest of the native
races in Central America. Higher and higher
we mounted. to broad table land, where
fields of wheat and corn reminded us that we
were in a temperate climate, not withstand
ing cactus fences and coffee groves. short
distance off the main road, up an avenue
lined with eucalyptus trees, we saw square
wooden house. painted white, with green
blinds, porches. picket fence, all unmistak-
ably North American. It was the former
farm of Californian, so we were told, who
brought to Guatemala newly inherited fort
une OF 100000 most of which he planted IN
wheat fields on this mesa. He wanted to
teach the Indians how to raise wheat. Since
time out OF mind they had been raising whea
after the primitive method OF their ancestors
with excellent results, and they are still doing
it in precisely the same fashion, while thu
Californian is now earning a modest living a.
teacher of English in Antigua.
A Fertile Valley OF Antigua.
At the village of San Rafael, which i:
merely collection of mud huts, we halted TO
midday breakfast. Here four diligencta
were assembled, from as many points of tn
compass, all bearing parties to Antigua, thi
being the regular eating station and chic
place OF transit between the old capital ant
the new. In one Of the mud huts. set In tn.
midst OF beautiful terraced garden, Wit,
green hedges and well brushed paths and bed
or rare flowers. we found comfortable meal
OF eggs, beans and tortillas, served, smokin
hot, by soft-voiced Indian girls. At San Ra
fael tho view is fine and wide; behind the LONG
narrow gorge up which We had come, in som
places little wider than the road, with steep
wooded hills on either side; directly in front
the great Mclean de Aqua with chalky-toppet
Fuego alongside now smoking like chimney
coffee lands to the east and west as far as tn,
eye can see, and dim in the distance the shad,
.owy outlines of extinct Acatenango. Fror
this point on there is no pleasure in the jour
!ney, the midday heat being intense and dus
rising in binding clouds
The valley of Antigua is much more tertil