Page:Mexico, picturesque, political, progressive.djvu/18

16 of machine-turned woods, to which we are unfortunately too well used in church architecture at home. From the flat roof, a beautiful prospect opens on all sides. A fine row of gray stone arches marks the path of the aqueduct built more than two hundred years ago to convey water from the mountains beyond. A bird's-eye view into the inner portion of the adobe houses near gave an added touch of strange interest to the scenes. A courtyard almost immediately below had a tiled floor, surrounding a garden bright with peach-bloom and century plants. Two shaggy burros and a group of picturesque children played in and out among the heavy stone arches of the open gallery leading to the rooms of the house, which were lightened by vivid frescos of brilliant white and blue. One or two shadowy forms lounged against the pillars of the wall; a woman's voice came singing from the rooms beyond; and a flock of gray doves rose and fell like a soft cloud above the flat roof. Outside, down the long cottonwood-fringed street, three horsemen, one all in white, one draped in deep red, and a third with flying parti-colored sashes, shone like blotches of color against the pale sky.