Page:Mexico and its reconstruction.djvu/140

122 obtained cotton by trading fruit or other natural products for it. A few had flocks of sheep.

The diet of these people was chiefly corn, beans, fruits, and game. They bought salt and occasionally beef. The chief indulgence was alcohol. They were all but self-sufficient, they were almost untouched by taxes, unaffected by commerce and industry. Among such a population labor was scarce though potential laborers many.

In some of the southern states work by the task, the so-called faena, or tarea, was frequent in the middle '80s and in some municipalities it was the only way of hiring labor. In Cuaatla, Morelos, in one of the sugar districts there were day and task laborers. The latter did a set amount for 25 centavos. An active man could do three tasks but most stopped after doing one or one and a half, although the day laborers might still be at work. Those who worked by the day were of two classes. Both worked all day. Those of both classes were required to do a certain amount of work before sunrise. In the afternoon those who did not live on the estate had to do another equal task completed by eight o'clock on regular week days without increase in pay. On the other hand, they could come to work at noon on Monday and stop Saturday afternoon at two or three. All the men were paid twice a week, on Tuesday what they had earned to that time, called the socorro, and on Saturday the raya.

Farther north in the State of Puebla some laborers worked by the day or week for 31¼ centavos a day during the unusual stress of hay or wheat harvest. Those