Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/35

CH. I.] pains in the head, especially those arising from tooth-ach. In this case it is inserted by a syringe, or more frequently by the mouth of the operator, into the ear opposite to that side of the face where the pain lies, and is suffered to remain in till the pain leaves the patient, which I have always perceive it do, however violent the attack may have been, in the course of three or four minutes: the whole effect is doubtlessly produced by what is called counter-action.

Early in the evening I arrived at a sugar water-mill, one of the largest haciendas in Mexico. It was built about half a century ago, by Don Carlos Cermina. Here they made weekly 2,000 arrobas, of 25 lbs. each, of molasses, selling for fifteen dollars per carga of eighteen arrobas, also 2,000 arrobas of sugar, besides fifty barrels of brandy. There might have been employed about 1,000 hands; but the works were not in full operation. They belonged to the same owners as the sugar estate and mill of