jicaras of gúero,[11] an equal number of gourds cut in halves to make drinking vessels and for other purposes, are the eating utensils. A roughly-made, circular stool of half a yard in diameter and about as much in height, and which is used for shaping the tortillas as well as for a table at which they eat their meals, etc. Fifteen to twenty yards of cotton cloth for the man's clothes, for the wife's, and for the children's, which costs a real per yard, supposing the woman does not spin and weave this herself; two or three coarse needles, a reel of cotton thread, a straw hat, sandals, a handkerchief and a cotton belt; a large straw basket or hamper, a mecapal, and a sack of henequen, complete the list. A trough in which to wash clothes and to bathe themselves; a few pounds of corn which he sows himself, as well as chile, beans, calabazas,[12] camote [sweet potatoes], and jicama,[13] a bunch of bananas, the leaf of which is used to shape the tortillas, and perhaps a sour orange. His wood he himself cuts in the forest for cooking his meals and also for the fire which he keeps all night in the center of the hut; and lastly a little salt. This is the entire inventory of the necessaries of life an Indian family of Yucatan needs, and which suffices even to the wealthy ones in the larger towns and principal cities. A great many of them live even without some of the things enumerated. They substitute for corn and vegetables (in case they cannot have them either for not having sown or for having lost the harvest), fruits, roots, and indigenous plants which grow wild all over their country, and which are edible and nourishing. Shall we still ask why the Yucatecan Indian is so indolent, when he has such few and such modest necessities, all of which are so easy to obtain even in the midst of the forests and at a great distance from any other human habitation?

He instinctively hates the superiority of the white race, and even of the mestizos, to whom institutions both of long ago and of the present day, customs, greater civilization, and above all the allotment of land, give so many advantages. His almost irresistible inclination carries him into isolation, almost exile, in order to escape from the torment of seeing them and from social duties. He retires where the land is free, where he can till his field wherever he pleases. This accounts for the often very small settlements of perhaps only a couple of families in the thickets of the forests, provided they find a spring or at least a watering place, even though they might have to travel a considerable distance to provide themselves. But even those who live in larger settlements, in towns of white people, will invariably select the most retired spots in streets in the outskirts (far away from the center of the town) where to build their huts.

This isolation in the big forests is the principal cause of his becoming more and more brutish, and it grows with the facility which those same isolated places afford him to satisfy the one and only desire he has acquired—drunkenness. It is there he finds balché and wild honey to brew his pitarrilla. And there are ever some of his own race or mestizos who bring him liquor in exchange for the little corn he may have stored. He gives this up with an improvidence which seems innate, though perhaps we might attribute it to ignorance.

The Indian never sees the crucifix or a simple cross or the image of some saint displayed anywhere, without going to kneel before it in reverent devotion, nor does he ever meet a priest without raising his hat or hurrying to his side to kiss his hand. He spends half of his earnings in devotional offerings which in the end degenerate into perfect orgies of religious fervor. And yet, in spite of all that, he does not feel the slightest scruple to take as concubines his sisters or even his own daughters.

He does not profess half as much love and devotion to God as he shows toward the images of Saint Anthony of Padua or to the crucifix, both of which are the only ornaments he has in his little hut. He enters a church without bowing to the Holy Sacrament on the main altar, but he goes and kneels before the cross or before Saint Anthony or Saint Francis of Paula, or to any other image to which miracles are ascribed, no matter how poorly executed or how defective such an image might be. On rising from his prostrate position, he bends over to kiss the altar, to touch its board with his cheeks or forehead, then touches the image itself, if such is possible, at least with a twig of some aromatic herb or a flower which he carries home as a relic, paying it the utmost reverence. In addition to this he offers a certain amount of money for candles which he lights before the image of his saint at certain times; he pays for a determinate number of "Salve Reginas" to be sung either in the church or during street processions for his sake, and he offers prayers for the souls of departed relatives.

He believes that the souls of the departed return to earth, and he therefore marks with chalk the road from the cemetery to their former abode, that they may not get lost.

He has just as deep-rooted a belief in witches and elves, and he is in very great fear of witchcraft. It is impossible to eradicate from his mind the idea that there are men who especially dedicate themselves to inflict this dreadful art on others.

He fears and respects at the same time an ideal being whom he calls Balám and who, so he says, is the lord of the fields. They all are therefore convinced that these fields cannot be tilled without danger even to their lives if they do not offer him sacrifices before beginning work, such as horchata de maiz (orgeat), which they call sacá; a stew made of corn and turkey, which they call kool; the tortilla with beans, called bulihuah; pitarrilla, and fumes of copal which they use instead of incense. It may safely be stated, therefore, that they adore him like God, but they are always careful that the white people do not see or notice this sacrificial offering for fear of being considered as idolators.

Alux they call certain apparitions which they believe to exist in the ancient ruins and on the hills, and they say that as soon as it grows dark in the evening these apparitions or ghosts commence to walk around the houses, throwing stones, whistling to the dogs and lashing them when they get near them, which leaves the poor beasts with a cough that kills them. They pretend that these ghosts can run with great speed, as well backward as forward; that they do not terrify those who look at them. They are wont to enter into the houses to annoy and tease people who are abed in their hammocks, not letting them sleep. They assure us that on ranches where sugar-cane is grown, and just as soon as the grinding machine for the cane is set up, they will go and turn it or they will drive on the horse attached to it, to make it trot around. They say these apparitions are of the size of a little Indian boy of four or five, and that