Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/135

Rh family fashion, crosswise the hammock. But when one abandons himself to the guidance of a stranger, upon whose hospitality he is dependent, he must promptly check any qualms of his sensitive soul, and be duly grateful for what he can get.

It was so cold that I awoke several times during the brief space we occupied the hammock, and tried to remember that this was what they term the "hot" season. From the great flat surface of rock exposed to the rays of a powerful sun during the day in Yucatan, and the extremely rapid radiation at night, a degree of cold is sometimes reached that produces nocturnal freezing. During the hot, dry season, the cool nights are in most delightful contrast to the heated atmosphere of day, and induce sweet slumber, if one is properly guarded from extremes of temperature.

At about seven in the morning we were off for the logwood camp, by the way of the town of Ɔilam. This inverted C, with which Ɔilam is spelled, is a necessity arising from the retention of the ancient Maya names, and has the power of Ts, the word, consequently, being pronounced Tsilam. Don Alonzo could speak excellent Spanish, but what availed that to me when I was but in my first lessons in that language? He could not speak English, but he had a new "Ollendorff," and with this and my "conversation-book" in our hands, we rode through the cool woods, startling the birds with our blunders, and laughing at our many mistakes.

After an easy ride of four short leagues we arrived at Ɔilam, entering its principal street between low, white-walled houses. Going to a house near the great square, we tied our horses, and I paid the man who brought my luggage two reals—twenty five cents—for his services, and four reals for the horse, and he returned to Timax. We were provided with breakfast in a tienda,—a shop,—and while we were eating, the proprietor played the Toro for us on a guitar. After a siesta in a hammock, drowsily watching a girl of graceful figure, clad only in a snowy uipil, combing for an hour her abundant tresses, I was taken out and introduced to the Presidente as the "learned naturalist, author, and discoverer, Señor Don Federico."