Page:Here and there in Yucatan - miscellanies (IA herethereinyucat00lepl 0).djvu/99

 Those who accompanied the Spaniards, and had so earnestly advised them not to go, now used all their powers of persuasion to save their lives, saying that there was no need to kill them since they were going away. It was only due to their kind efforts that the priests were spared to tell the tale.

In the forests of Yucatan dwell many Indian families, scattered here and there, forming very small hamlets, in out-of-the-way places, to avoid being taxed or called upon for military service. They of course have few comforts; contenting themselves with corn, black beans, and red pepper.

Having no education they are not troubled by any ambition save that of keeping their liberty, and going through life with as little labor as possible. The all-important object in their existence is corn; the only work they never neglect is the cultivation of that grain. In the same field they plant beans, the vines twining around the corn stalks.

Their method of preparing the soil for seed is exactly the same as that in use by some of the people in Equatorial Africa. In the dry season, trees are felled in any chosen part of the forest, and reduced to ashes in order to enrich the thin coating of loam that covers the very stony soil. After the first