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 566 matter must at once resolve itself into the setting up of one's own little household kingdom. Furniture is not only extremely scarce but high-priced, and furnish the house the best one can, with what is to be had, and with a limitless amount of pottery cooking utensils, still there will remain an aching void in the list of supplied necessities. If household goods are brought from home, taxes and custom-house duties will fully quadruple their original cost. No American woman thinks at first that she can exist without a cooking-stove, but, to carry one along that has cost twenty dollars at home, it will, when turned over to her, have cost six times its original value. When in its place and man or burro have trotted their score or two of miles with a double handful of wood for cooking purposes, another difficulty is added when the cook tells her: "It will give me disease of the liver," or, "No es costumbre." It is then her disgust reaches a supreme height. If she fails to take pillows and bedding along, it is possible that she may "lie on the floor and cover with the door," or rest on such substitutes for beds as would break the bones of a Samson or Goliath.

This may seem paradoxical, having described the elegant furnishings of some Mexican mansions; but stores exclusively for furniture are not general, with some exceptions at the capital and in the larger interior cities.

The Mexicans have been always accustomed to order their household furnishings direct from Europe or the United States, and strangers generally on going must risk the chances of buying what they can second-hand from some one moving away, or have a carpenter manufacture some, on his own plans and specifications. But do not calculate on the time for it to come into your possession. Meanwhile a cot and a few Mexican blankets are blessings in exchange for the soft side of an earthen floor.

You may be able to rent rooms in families, and in gems of precious pottery prepare your meals after your own fashion. Sometimes you will be able to procure comfortably furnished rooms, and have meals sent from a fonda, but you will very rarely find a Mexican family who will furnish them. You may have a room in their house,