Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/525

Rh After a mile or two through cultivated fields, we again took to the hills, and jolted up and down through the same eternal stretches of cactus. These were of every shape and variety, chiefly of the Candelabrum species, some of them full thirty feet in diameter. The very expressive name of this cactus is organo, or the organ, since it grows straight up with fluted, hexagonal columns, and when many of them are together has a faint resemblance to an organ with its pipes. Hedges are made of them which are very durable and easily induced to thrive. The cacti are not wholly worthless, as jackasses feed on them when in straits for food. Certain species bear edible fruit, and mules and donkeys find within them reservoirs of water, and even the goat will not hesitate to exchange for them his favorite fodder.

The only hacienda after San Antonio was Ayotla, a small one, some four leagues distant. After this we passed San Juan de los Cues, four leagues from the end of the diligence route, where is a collection of huts and the finest trees we saw anywhere. This place is in a pass between high cliffs, and takes its name from some artificial mounds, one of which is very prominent on the right of the pass. Beyond this we drove down the river basin, crossing a broad stream several times, and drove into Techomavaca at five, having been fourteen hours in the diligence, through a hot, weary day. Techomavaca may be taken as a type of a Mexican country village, built out of raw material, straw and mud, in the form of a square; the latter, indeed, is about all there is; it comprises nine tenths of the town, with a narrow rim of houses and huts. It must have been a Mexican general who, commanding a force of one man, told him to form himself into a hollow square, for that is the aim and end of all builders in this country. Techomavaca, says an old writer, is an Hispano-Indian word, meaning, "The cow will eat thee." We found here four horses and a mule, which had been telegraphed for to Oaxaca, and sent up to meet us. They were very small and scraggy, but tough and lively, and we mounted them at five, sharp, the next morning.

Leaving the town, we bade adieu to all refreshing vegetation, and, after crossing a broad river with several channels, entered