Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/48

28 and, contrary to my inclination, our saddle-cloths being disposed on the ground, we laid ourselves down to rest under this natural canopy. Don Mateo's siesta, which he could take in general, with a precision, as to length and duration, that might regulate the sun, but by which it was, in fact, influenced, seemed to have slept faster than usual. We remounted in pursuit of our baggage, which he said he had ordered on, as we might overtake it. I remarked that he was constantly looking behind him, although he was pressing his horse forward: he was desirous to get to his baggage, and from, the soldiers, being under the twofold influence of attraction and repulsion, like a needle placed between the opposite poles of two magnets.

Istola is a real inland Indian town: the alcalde and all the authorities are purely of this origin: their faces and bodies are covered with large black spots, which are catching either by contact or by the use of their furniture or implements. Having