Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/136

116 equilibrium, to the good offices of the gentleman, whose left arm thus, naturally, surrounds her waist: his bridle is held in the right hand, which, as all my readers know, is the wrong one, but the other being engaged, he has no opportunity of helping himself, or even of lighting his cigar; so that this business devolves, as a matter of course, upon his companion; and thus the journey is accompanied, as might be expected, with a general interchange of mutual good offices. I never passed a party of these travellers but I remarked that those, who were riding in this fashion, seemed to be the most cheerful and contented amongst them, and the least tired with the journey;—a circumstance very difficult to account for, since the position of each is thus rendered very cramped and uncomfortable.

A stout, handsome negro-like woman, a real Patagonian in stature, with her long black hair falling in crisp corkscrew ringlets down her neck, and more scantily attired