Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/528

520 ascended yet steeper hills for some miles, and reached Salomen, a group of huts in the centre of grassy slopes and oak-covered hills. As the hot, dry country is changed into the warm and moist, the ungainly cacti gradually merge into beautiful palms, and the landscape is charming. After three days and a half of cactus-covered hills, the sight of trees and grass was very inviting. The country had completely changed, and we galloped through extensive oak woods for many a league, with noble views of an ocean of hills, along the ridges of which we picked our way, to a place called Carbonera, containing solely a house of dried mud and a cow-yard. An Indian girl was asleep on the mud floor, with a naked baby, and her we roused, and begged to get us ready something to eat. After cooking some eggs, frying over some frijoles, and warming up some cold tortillas, she washed, with the same water the eggs were to be boiled in, some coarse earthen dishes and her hands at the same time, and then, spreading the repast upon the floor, stretched herself out in her corner and snored, while we fell to eating, like hungry men, as we were. One of our tired and exhausted carga mules here had the blind staggers, and one of our horses went lame.

Leaving this place, we galloped down the hills into the valley of Etla, reaching a place called Huitzo at dark, just before a thunder-storm broke over the hills. We were now in the territory of the Miztec Indians, inveterate enemies of the Aztecs in olden times, whom they always slew at sight, when they could. The town is situated at the head of the valley, which, as we went southward next morning, we found to increase in area and fertility. Half-way down, it is crossed by a line of artificial hills, one group of which, known as Los Cerritos de la Peña, we visited. These were at least a dozen in number, conical, oval, and quadrilateral, within an area of a few acres. We examined them carefully, but found nothing beyond a few shards of pottery; no implements even, though ornaments of gold, silver, and bronze have been discovered here. They lie near the town of Etla, on the eastern foot-hills, near which the golden throne of the last Miztecan king is said to be buried. Two great tribes of Indians occupied this valley in former years, the Zapotecs and Miztecs,