Page:Here and there in Yucatan - miscellanies (IA herethereinyucat00lepl 0).djvu/116

 find the maimed and infirm; providing them with all the necessaries of life. At the time of the Spanish conquest the land was common property; all worked together to cultivate it, dividing the product equally, after presenting a part to their caciques. They never thought of cheating each other.

They had netted purses, and in the markets treated of everything that was in the land. They gave credit, lent and paid without interest. Written bonds were not in use among them, for none dreamed of breaking their word.

Fifty or a hundred would go hunting or fishing; instead of each appropriating his own game it was equally divided among all at the end of the day. There was such a universal brotherhood among those people that when one went traveling he was welcome in every house, sheltered and fed as a matter of course, nobody thinking of asking or accepting payment. To-day, their descendants, though very poor, are some of the most hospitable people on the face of the earth. Even yet, although entirely in the power of the white man, constantly laboring for exacting masters, they help each other and share equally as far as it lies in their power. If fire destroys an Indian's hut, his home, dear to his heart and as great a loss as a palace can be to a prince, all