Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/85

Rh until they have spread it out to the thickness of common paste-board, and bake it on a hot stone. This is the tortilla, which with the dark red beans known as frijoles, form the leading articles of diet of the humbler class. The tortilla is also used as a spoon, when they eat beans or soup, and the spoon is eaten up at the close of the feast.

Our military guard was an object of no little curiosity and admiration. They belong to a force of eight hundred picked men, armed, equipped, and put into the field by the State of Jalisco, to free the roads from robbers and maintain public order. Col. Sabas Lomeli, their commander, is a splendid-looking man, tall, stout built, quite fair complexioned, with long whiskers and mustaches, a la Americano, and is not only remarkably good looking, but has the air and carriage of a soldier. He is said to be a very brave and accomplished officer, and the fact that within a few months his command has practically cleared the roads of the great State of Jalisco of robbers, and captured or killed nearly two hundred of the banditti, who had made traveling very dangerous, speaks well for his energy. He is accompanied