Page:Face to Face With the Mexicans.djvu/53

Rh knocked senseless to the ground by one of these streams, and it was several minutes before he recovered his breathing and yelping faculties.

The ends of these spouts, in many instances artistically ornamented, protrude over the street. In more modern houses conduits, a few inches wide, are cut into the sides of the wall and cemented, taking the place of the stone spouts. They are quite as effective, but the quaintness and antique appearance of the houses is greatly diminished by them.

In the carriage-house there still remained a silent old relic of Mexican grandeur and aristocratic distinction, with wheels like an American road-wagon and hubs like a water-bucket. In the garden were fruit-trees and the family pila (bath). The latter was built of adobe, three feet high and twelve feet square, without cover, the water being supplied by means of earthen pipes from the mountain springs. A fountain and exquisite flowers adorned the patio, a climbing rose of unusual luxuriance at once attracting special notice. It was evergreen, and of extraordinary size, extending in graceful festoons fully one hundred feet on either side. We were told that at the time of the occupation of Saltillo by Taylor's army this same vine was an attractive feature of the court.

Imagine the dismay and apprehension of several American women at thus finding themselves surrounded by so many evidences of ancient refinement and culture, and yet by none of the modern necessaries of housekeeping. In this old city of twenty thousand inhabitants there was not a store where such indispensables as bedsteads or furniture of any kind, pillows or mattresses, could be purchased; while coffee or spice mills, cook-stoves or wash-tubs, were absolutely out of the question. How we managed may prove interesting to those who contemplate taking up their residence in Mexico, and will be related in the succeeding chapters. It was not by any means a question of money or price that prevented one from being comfortable at the outset.

We ladies were constantly portraying to each other, in a humorous way, how frightened we should be if circumstances should ever require any one of us to remain alone in this old castle over night;