Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/194

174 hardly have too many of them. This hot spring is equally useful to assist parturition, and it is not unusual to see the mother walking home with her infant after having had recourse to the obstetric assistance of its waters. The cold bath of the adjoining lake and of a clear rapid river, which flows into it, are also very generally used both by the inhabitants and the visitors. About twelve o'clock, on passing the banks of the latter, it seemed as if the whole population of the place had agreed to take a bath together. The better classes availed themselves of the bathing houses, and other protections which decency suggests; but the whole scene was shamefully at variance with its dictates.

The bathing houses alluded to are small wooden buildings erected on the sides of the river, by the more opulent part of the community, for times of recreation, similar to the present: they consist of one square or octagonal sitting room, with windows, unglazed, looking out in every direction: as they are raised on pillars, over the water,