Page:Researches in the Central Portion of the Usumatsintla Valley.djvu/45

Rh bundle is protected by a covering of bark (majahua, as it is called in Tabasco) which is usually stripped from young ceiba-trees. The art of cleaving flint into thin layers has been preserved up to the present day by this secluded little nation. It appears that in some cases the cleaving is facilitated by previously heating the stone red-hot, but this is not always done. The cleaving is effected by means of a piece of deer-horn, especially prepared for this purpose, and by means of this elastic medium the blow of the mallet is transferred to the edge of the stone. The layers thus obtained (Figs. 12, 13) then receive the desired shape and an edge (Fig. 14), by means of a piece of an old knife (now made of iron). Inasmuch as the Indians also find many discarded bottles in the abandoned monterías, they use the glass of these bottles in place of flint. They make the arrow-points of this broken glass, which does not admit of cleaving.

There were only a few domestic animals to be seen on Māx's premises. The only mammals were dogs, which are always tied up, and belong to the present modern breed. Among the birds I noticed the large green parrots with blue heads, which occur exclusively in these forests. They are therefore called los loros de los Lacandones or loros palencanos. There were also several specimens of a beautiful small Coturnix species, called bolonchac, confined in small bejuco cages.

It is hardly to be expected that a remnant of those ancient breeds of dogs — Techichi, Xoloitscuintli. Itscuintepotsotli — should still be preserved among the Lacantuns. All the lumbermen who had come in contact with these Indians had seen only dogs of the same breed as those found everywhere in Mexico.