Page:Mexico, California and Arizona - 1900.djvu/267

 Rh usual custom, a substantially paved and enclosed area, semicircular at one end, used as a threshing-floor. Troops of running horses are driven around here upon the grain, like those in patio process, only in a very much livelier fashion. The long façade was made up in part of massive trojes, or granaries, comprised under the same roof as the house. Each troje has a special name of its own inscribed upon it. There were, for instance, the "Troje de la Espigcro" ("Corn in the Ear"), the Troje de la Teja ("Tiled Roof"); and the "Troje de Limbo" and "Troje de Nuestra Señora del Pilar". The walls of these graneries were of great thickness, in order to preserve the contents cool and at an even temperature. Heavily buttressed, and with their long lines of piers, a yard square, extending down the dim interiors, they are more like basilicas of the early Christian era than simple barns. The central cluster of buildings alone, not counting those detached, covers perhaps four to five acres. Mounting to the roof and looking over its expanse, broken by the openings of numerous courts, you seem to be comtemplating, as it were, some agricultural Louvre or Escorial. Its rear wall is washed by a presa, or artificial pond for irrigation, which stretches away like a lake. Beyond this rises a charming grassy hill, called the Cerro. We climbed the Cerro, and lounged away more than one afternoon there in sketching, and contemplating the beautiful level valley of Tulancingo, spread out below.

The white hacienda with red roofs lay in front, reflecting clearly in the pond. Tulancingo was a white patch at a distance, and other white patches nearer were the hamlets of Jaltepec, Amatlan, and Zupitlan—the latter in ruins. Straight, lane-like roads led from one to another. The mountains on the horizon afforded glimpses of ba–