Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/137

CH. VIII.] than decency would suggest, received me at the door of her hut, with a courteous smile. She was about thirty years of age, which, in this country, is far beyond the period of youth; and her face was slightly wrinkled; but her teeth exhibited an unbroken palisade of untarnished ivory, behind the embankments of two wide pouting lips: she was a fine specimen of the caste between the African and Indian: in her youth, she must have been extremely handsome, and, I doubt not, have had many admirers. She was very civil and obliging, by giving us such accommodation as her house afforded: this consisted of two small apartments, one entering into the street, and, by another door, into the yard behind, and the other leading from the former by a door-way, on the side. The latter was the bed-room; and the former, being totally unoccupied by any particle of furniture, we disposed our beds in it; which, being done, left a very small portion, at the other end, vacant for the operation of cooking our