Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/93

Rh twists it in a crude but satisfactory way, and is supplied. The greatest of all uses to which this filament can be applied is the manufacture of hammocks. All Yucatan sleeps in a hammock,—that is, every individual Yucateco and Yucateca sleeps in his or her individual hammock. In many towns in the State a bed is unknown. The most respectable, as well as the most

lowly there, are born, live, and die in a hammock. They pass a great portion of their waking as well as sleeping hours in them. In their manufacture, then, the natives excel, and great numbers are made and shipped to New York. It is only the coarser variety that reaches the States, for the best ones command here higher prices than they could bring in New York, and rarely