Page:Guatimala or the United Provinces of Central America in 1827-8.pdf/307

Rh farm belonging to the dominican friars, and two trapichés.

On our arrival at the town, which chiefly consists of one long street wretchedly paved, we proceeded to the cabildo or town house, which in the absence of inns, is generally appropriated to travellers. This one might be justly termed a huge shed roughly divided into three parts; one extremity formed the prison, and the other the residence of an Indian,—in the middle department, which was three parts filled with logs of wood, we swung our hammocks and took up our residence. Soon after, we visited the cura, with whom we spent a great part of the evening. He seemed a well read, intelligent man, and possessed a very good miscellaneous library. Juarros, the historian of Guatimala, speaking of this town, says, that in the neighbourhood is found the green chapuli, a large species of grasshopper about a span long; at the extremity of its tail, is a sharp curved point like a thorn, which becomes hard when the animal has attained its full growth. “If killed in this state, and carefully opened, a small bunch of seeds similar to those of the passion flower about an inch long, attached to ramifying fibres, is found in the intestines. These grains being sown will produce a plant like the gourd, which will bear a fruit resembling small pompions as yellow and brilliant as gold; the