Page:Face to Face With the Mexicans.djvu/50

44 which by the aid of a bent pin and a string, manipulated by dexterous fingers, soon repaired all damages.

First, all the little sacks of water are conducted by means of the broom handle into the larger one, where the bent pin has been previously attached to the canvas and also to one end of the string. To the other end the strip of wood is fastened, and under this a bucket placed. Twenty minutes from the time of the first onslaught of the torrent through the roof all is serene and calm as a May morning. Orders were given at once to the mozo to sow the roof with grass-



seed, so as to prevent another catastrophe. No greater protection is found for an ordinary earthen roof than that afforded by a solid greensward. The roots form a compact net-work, so that it must be an unusually heavy storm that can penetrate it.

The method of conducting the water from the roof is in keeping with everything else. Great heavy gargoyles or stone spouts, weather-beaten and moss-covered, tipped with tin, full ten feet in length, six in a line on either side of the court, answered the purpose in our mansion. During a heavy rain-storm it was interesting to watch the steady streams of water foaming and surging into the court. I saw a dog