Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/177

CH. XI.] the end, about fifteen feet long and eight wide. The latter apartment communicated with the large one by an open door-way, and formed the left wing or extremity of the house. Behind it were four or five cottages, thickly inhabited with men, women, and children. I wondered, as their huts consisted of only one room and a kitchen, where they could all sleep; but the way in which we managed, quickly solved that difficulty. Eating, drinking, and sleeping, they say, are amongst the non-naturals of life: but they were here performed in the most simple, and, therefore, the most natural, way that I could possibly have contemplated. Five gentlemen's beds were made up in the room in which I slept, besides three ladies' beds in the room adjoining, not to mention the female attendants, who slept on the floor of the latter apartment.

The dinner table was furnished with a profusion of luxuries: great sobriety was observed by the gentlemen: two or three glasses