Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/147

CH. IX.] his cigar case, and selecting one of the smoothest and best twisted puros he could find, presented it to me whilst he struck a light from materials which he always carried suspended to a silken cord about his neck. They were composed of a dried bark called mecha, peculiar to the country, enveloped in the cord alluded to, and terminated with a silver box wrought into the figure of a lamb, the body of which contained a piece of flint and steel compactly fitted into the apparatus. As I remembered the irritation which I was sure he had been undergoing on my account, and now witnessed the good humour and complacency with which he performed the operation, I could not help apostrophising him, with "You are yoked with a lamb that carries anger as the flint bears fire, which, much enforced, shews a hasty spark, and, straight, is cold again."

We were now on our last stage to the capital of Guatemala; and as I approached