In Indian Mexico — Chapter XX - Tepehuas and Totonacs, part 3

[Illustration: PAGANISM AND CHRISTIANITY] We asked Don Pablo about the lake, concerning which we had heard.

He says it is not as much visited as formerly.

While used by Otomis, and others of this district, it is most favored by the Huaxtecs, parties of whom go there from long distances.

They visit it when there is drought, for fear that the siren, who lives in it, is annoyed at their neglecting to make gifts; when there is too copious rain, they visit it to beg her to desist from sending more, and, when crops have been destroyed, to placate her anger.

Sometimes two or three hundred indians are in these companies.

They bring _muñecos_ of wood, cloth, clay, or even metal;

such are shod, clad and hatted.

They leave these upon the shore.

They also bring seeds and strew them in the water, and some throw money in.

They also make offerings of turkeys and hens.

Sometimes these bands spend several days on the shore, dancing and eating.

We found that Don Pablo had arranged all our plans.

We were to leave at nine, dine at twelve at San Bartolo, leave there at one, and reach Huehuetla between five and six.

It was really only a quarter-past-nine when we did start, and the _jefe_, himself, saw us on our way.

The journey was uneventful; the descents were gradual; we saw San Bartolo long before we reached it; and, between it and us, there lay a valley, like a narrow gash, down which we had to go, and up the other side of which we had to climb.

We passed Santa Maria, an insignificant town, just before reaching the edge of this gully.

From there we saw, in the mountain ahead, above and behind San Bartolo, a great cavern which we believe must belong to witches.

Arriving at San Bartolo, we found the market in full progress, and had ample opportunity to see the characteristic dress of the women, with the little black, red and purple designs embroidered upon the white ground.

We were impressively received at the town-house, for Don Pablo had telephoned them to be ready.

Still, we waited a long time for the promised dinner, but at half-past-one climbed up a steep hill, in the rear of the town-house, to the home of the _presidente's_ father, where a very elaborate meal had been prepared, with wine and luxuries.

All payment was refused, and, after we had rested and refreshed ourselves, we left at half-past-two.

The road was long; it followed the side of a great gorge, into which it descended abruptly; in this gorge we saw magnificent vegetation.

The trees were heavily hung with long vines and ferns; parasitic fig trees, hugging victims whose life sap they were stealing, were abundant.

The country was of limestone.

On the whole, the road was good, but, here and there, were patches where we traveled over sharp and jagged out-croppings of rock, and near Huehuetla we were forced to make some stiff climbs up the cliff sides.

Flocks of parrots were numerous, especially toward evening.

The stream was a handsome one, with clear, deep water; we crossed and recrossed many times.

The foot-paths rarely crossed, being cut sometimes, as a narrow trail, in the rock of the cliff.

Noticeable were numerous silvery lines of water falling over the cliff, several of which must have been hundreds of feet in height; these little threads of water were impregnated with lime, and deposited material in a sheet upon the bank over which they flowed, so that trails of brown tufa marked their location; the lower ends of these deposits expanded into fan-like masses of tufa, over which the water trickled, dripped or fell.

Where there was not sufficient water to produce a stream and fall, but enough to keep the tufa moist, the growth of ferns, and other delicate vegetation, was brilliant and striking.

We passed a number of coffee and sugar ranches on the road.

It was dark long before we reached Huehuetla, and had it not been for the moonlight struggling through the clouds, we should have had difficulty in traveling the last portion of the road.

At 7:35 we arrived, and went at once to the large and handsome house of Don Pablo himself, where we were expected, and where an elaborate supper was being made ready.

The largest room in the house was put at our disposal and good beds and cots, beautifully clean and carefully made, were ready.

Formerly, Don Pablo was the _presidente_ of the town.

His successor was at the house to meet us, within five minutes after our arrival, and took supper with us.

It is needless to say that in this town we met with no delays in our work.

To our surprise, we found a fellow countryman, a civil engineer named Culin, from Philadelphia, who has done and is doing much work for the pueblos of this region.

Huehuetla is a large town, occupying a long valley hemmed in between mountains and bordering a stream.

The streets are regular, and the view from the hills about, looking down upon the well-built houses and the intersecting streets, is very pretty.

The houses have substantial walls of stone and mud, and many of them are white-plastered outside; all have a thick and heavy thatch.

The _plaza_ lies before the house where we stopped, and, to the right, the large church stands on a terrace somewhat above the town.

A large school building, finer than many of the best in some large cities, was just being finished; its construction was due to Don Pablo's influence, and it was soon to be occupied.

Meantime, the children were given instruction in the church, and at noon and evening, when their lessons were closed, they marched in double file, down the flight of steps in front of the church and across the _plaza_, where they separated and made their way home.

During the time that we were working at this town, when the school children filed past, they always removed their hats in the most respectful manner.

While there are many _mestizos_ in the town, it may truly be called an indian town, the largest of those belonging to the Tepehuas.

According to Orozco y Berra, Tepehua is not related to any other language in Mexico.

We have not studied it sufficiently to be sure that he is right; it is, however, certain that the language has been much affected by the Totonac, if it is not related to it, and many words in the two languages are the same.

The people of this tribe have a great reputation, more or less deserved, for cleanliness; probably it is comparative, contrasting with the neighboring Otomis, rather than positive.

However that may be, both men and women are usually dressed in clean white clothing.

The _enaguas_ of the women are plain white; their belts have a foundation of white cotton, but raised designs of black wool are so thickly worked upon them that the white is quite inconspicuous.

The _camisas_ and _quichiquemils_ are generally white, with a vertical band of red, and with a few animal figures.

Women wear many necklaces of bright beads, and braid their hair into two braids, which end with tapes of various colors,--brown, red, green, maroon, and black.

These braids are brought together over the head and knotted in place.

We secured no women for measure until we had practically completed the work with men, when they came with a rush, the whole twenty-five at once, dressed in their best clothing, and insisted that the work must be done inside the schoolhouse, out of sight, instead of on the street, where we had operated on the men.

We had no opportunity to see any of the popular _danzas_, in some of which, we were told, songs were sung in the Tepehua language, but we did see examples of the little _teponastls_, or drums, used on these occasions; they are made from a round block, perhaps ten inches long and three inches in diameter; these are hollowed out below, so that two thin lips only are left above, which, when struck, give out far more musical tones than one might expect.

The two nights that we were at Huehuetla, we saw men and women fishing in the stream; carrying blazing torches in their left hands, they waded out into the water and watched to see the dark bodies of the fish against the pebbly bottom of the stream; in the right hand they carried a _machete_, about a foot in length, with which they stabbed the fish, rarely missing.

We were now ready for the last tribe of the season, the Totonacs of Pantepec.

Pantepec is in the district of Huachinango, and we had no order from the _jefe_; Don Valentino, the _presidente_ of Huehuetla, said, however, that the _presidente_ of Pantepec was his friend, and that he would give us a letter of introduction, which would serve all purposes.

As we were to return by Huehuetla, we left the busts which we had made, and all but our most necessary baggage, at Don Pablo's house.

Though we started at ten, we took the journey slowly, photographing and hunting birds.

The road was a trail in a ravine, with all the beautiful scenery with which we now were so familiar.

At one point we saw a curious phenomenon.

The cliff rose vertically from the water's edge, at a place where the stream made a right angle; this cliff consisted of almost horizontal strata of varying hardness, so that some of the layers were worn a little more than others, leaving these projecting.

In the space between these projecting layers, round river-pebbles, from the size of hen's eggs up to the size of a man's fist, were firmly wedged, so that it was with difficulty that they could be dislodged.

Not a few, but hundreds of the pebbles, were thus wedged, so regularly and firmly that we could not believe the work to be that of nature, but suspected human hands.

We learned, however, that nature really had done the work, on the occasion of a flood, the result of a cloud-burst, which swept into the valley two or three years before.

At several places in this stream, we saw groups of from two or three to ten or twelve Totonac indians, who were fishing with little nets.

Our trail led back and forth across this stream many times, and before we reached Pantepec we had made thirty-nine crossings.

From our last crossing, we climbed a steep ascent, passing the little village of Tenasco, and found ourselves at Pantepec.

We rode at once to the town-house, and were told that the _presidente_ was sleeping; we went then to his house, where we were informed that he could not be disturbed.

We left word that we must see him as soon as possible, and that he would find us at the _municipio_.

Nearly three hours passed before he put in his appearance.

Inasmuch as we had seen this man's _jefe_, and he knew our errand, we told the _secretario_ to send a message for us to him at Huachinango.

We carefully wrote out the message for forwarding, in which we told the _jefe_, that we had waited three hours for attention from the town officials, and asked how much longer we should put up with delay.

We never heard his answer, but in less than ten minutes, the _presidente_, covered with perspiration, was waiting for our orders and every policeman or the force was ready for our bidding.

The message he received from the _jefe_ must have been vigorous, for not only was everything done for our comfort, but work was rushed.

During the next day we measured ninety-eight men, photographed twelve subjects, and made moulds for all our five busts--an unparalleled day's labor.

We were fortunate in one respect--that the men had been summoned that day for public labor.

So far as men were concerned, they gave no difficulty as subjects.

With the women it was different, and full half a day was taken in getting together our twenty-five types; not but what there were plenty of them, for our second day at Pantepec was market-day, and the _plaza_ was gay with women, but they did not wish to be measured, and the whole town force, from _presidente_ to the meanest _topil_, was afraid to meddle with them; at first, too, we had none but the most wretched cases, women broken down and worn out with years of labor.

When nearly half our number had passed through our hands, and all presented this same unsatisfactory type, we were forced to make a sharp remonstrance, and only so did we get fair samples of young and middle-aged women.

At Pantepec the centre of the town is _mestizo_; the Indians consist of Otomis, of whom there are thirty households, and Totonacs forming the bulk of the population.

It is easy to distinguish the women of the two tribes by the difference in dress.

The _quichiquemils_ are particularly picturesque.

Both are more heavily loaded with embroidery than any Indian garments we had ever seen, but the styles of the two decorations are completely different.

The _quichiquemils_ of the Otomis are smaller and completely covered with red and black embroidery; those of the Totonacs are much larger, and portions of the white foundations may still be seen, notwithstanding the heavy patterns in brilliant colors--red, green, yellow and blue.

Mothers put babies onto one side, with their little legs astride a hip, and then tie them firmly in place with an _ayate_, or carry-cloth, of cotton, thus leaving their hands free for work or other burdens.

If we had difficulty measuring the Totonac women, we had still greater difficulty in photographing satisfactory groups of them.

Neither pleadings nor bribes on our part, orders nor threats on the part of the officials, had much influence.

Pantepec is a large town, situated near the edge of the great mountain mass, and looking across a valley, which is backed by what appears to be a flat-topped, straight-edged, table mountain.

The houses of the town are scattered over a considerable area upon the slope.

The walls are of poles, heavily daubed with mud which is neatly and smoothly laid on.

The corners of this mud covering are rounded, instead of angular, as usual elsewhere.

The thatch is heavy and firm, and squarely cut along its lower edge, where it projects far beyond the walls.

The _plaza_ is above the town-house, and is extremely ugly; a kiosk, which certainly can lay no claim to beauty, stands in the centre; ugly shacks, used as _tiendas_, border a part of it along the main road.

Striking, at this time, in the village were the _colorín_ trees, some of which occurred in almost every enclosure; they were in bloom, and had long, slender, flaming-red, cigarette-shaped flowers, which appeared before the leaves, from trunks that were gnarled and brown and almost branchless.

Many popular _danzas_ are celebrated here, but none was taking place during our stay.

San Gregorio, the town of paper-making, is not far from Pantepec, and large quantities of the bark paper are beaten in the little village of Ixcoyotla, which belongs to this _municipio_.

Asking an old Otomi whether he knew about this paper, he answered us, with great cunning, that we probably knew as much of it as he did.

He finally condescended to state that the _muñecos_ of it were used in curing disease; that anyone who has a disease secures one of these _muñecos_ and applies it to the diseased part.

The _presidente_ insisted that this paper was not made from _jonote_, but from _uli_, and that formerly it was much used in making strong and durable belts.

[Illustration] In starting back the next morning, we went down a different slope from the one by which we had come, with the result that we had to cross the stream five times more than before, making the full forty-four crossings, of which we had been warned by Culin while we were at Huehuetla.

We made our way leisurely, stopped when we pleased, and at one point noticed a cave, which we had not seen before, just across the stream, at a point where it was at its deepest.

The cave was so near the water's edge, that it could only be approached from the stream.

The boys swam across and entered it to see if perchance they might find some of the paper figures used in _bruhería_.

They found little of interest within; the walls and rocks were marked with crosses, and on the floor were hundreds of little sticks cut to various lengths.

We were glad, indeed, to reach Don Pablo's house, to eat his good supper, and to occupy his good beds.

Before we went to bed, Doña Panchita suggested that we ought to see certain _muñecos_ kept by a man named Diego, and used as idols by the village.

Accordingly, she sent orders that the man should bring his _muñecos_ to the house for us to see.

To this request, he returned the proper reply, that he would not do so; that they would be offended; that they were not toys to be carried about at the nod and beck of everyone.

This greatly increased our interest, and we arranged for a trip to his house.

We first sent a messenger forward, with word that we were coming, and ordered him to stay there to see that Diego did not run away or hide the idols.

After supper, Doña Panchita, our company, Mr. and Mrs. Culin, and one or two others, picked our way by moonlight across the stepping-stones and foot-bridge, up a trail by coffee groves along a purling brook-side.

We were soon at the house, and after some hesitation, Diego led us to the Holy of Holies.

The _muñecos_ were kept in a little house, which contained an altar built of boards, with fresh flowers for decoration.

At the back of the altar, against the wall, were prints of Christian saints; on the altar were censers and an open bundle of _copal_.

Two wooden boxes were at the right end of the altar, against the wall.

These contained _muñecos_ which, for some time, Diego hesitated to produce.

Finally he took out an idol of rather fine-grained, brownish-gray stone; the head was large and infantile, with the Mongolian cast of countenance; its badly shaped and scrawny arms were raised so as to bring the hands together on the chest; the body was shapeless.

This figure was clad in a suit of unbleached cotton, much too long and slender for it, and the arms of the _camisa_, and the legs of the _calzones_ hung limp.

When we had duly admired this figure, a second was produced--a pottery female-head, fairly shaped, with no body to speak of; this had glass earrings fastened in the ears.

Next, a small headless figure was brought out; it was old, though probably made after the Conquest, and we agreed that it represented a _padre_.

Next was a simple pottery head.

Last was a figure, with small head and pointed cap, made apparently of pottery; the body had been pieced out to disproportionate length with wood, and ended in a pair of wooden feet;

this was dressed in black velvet, and wore a black hat.

These, Diego asserted, were all he had.

After having expressed our delight with them, and our regret that we had not known what we were to see, that we might have brought with us some fine white _copal_ as incense for these gods, we set them up in a straight line on the edge of the altar to make a flashlight picture.

As we left, we gave Diego two _reales_ to spend for the benefit of his gods.

After we left, we were assured that he had finer ones of black stone, which he dresses in red, but we were content with the ones we had seen.

These figures are particularly used on September 16th, San Miguel's day.

They are also used at sowing-time, at harvest, and at the first cutting of sugar-cane.

On these occasions, incense and candles are burned, the idols are taken in the hands, and to the sound of music, worshippers move the figures, causing them to dance.

Pleased with this, they give good rains to the faithful worshippers.

When there is too much rain, they go in procession to the river, playing music and dancing dolls; when arrived, they peg down many _ayates_ and sacks, made for the purpose, into the water against the flow.

These are dams, to stay the flood.

On the other hand, when there is drought, a procession carries the idols to a cave, where a feast is given and a dance, with wands of flowers carried in the hands, indulged in.

Though the price for animals from Huehuetla to Las Tortugas was exorbitant, we had agreed to pay it--but told the man that, if he left later than six, it should be cut two dollars.

It was long after eight before they appeared, and then it was only our own animals that were ready.

We were forced to leave the packing to be done by the man himself without direction; we ourselves hurried along the trail, hardly stopping at San Bartolo on the way, arriving at Tenango at 4:15. Our animals were fagged, and we were soaked to the skin, having travelled through _nublina_ most of the afternoon.

Don Pablo received us with his usual courtesy, and had arranged for us to sleep at the same house, where we had been before.

At bed-time, our man with the mules had not appeared, and we had received most contradictory and discouraging statements regarding him.

He had started at nine with two mules and left half our stuff for another day; he had been seen at the river near San Bartolo with two mules heavily loaded, unable to proceed; he had concluded to stop at San Bartolo for the night, to push on to Tenango the next day, and reach Las Tortugas on the third.

Dissatisfied and uncertain, we went to bed; still, we determined to leave at five, and so gave orders to our _mozo_.

We rose at 4:15 and the horses were ready before five.

Contradictory stories were again told us regarding our animals.

Some said the man had passed with them at five o'clock; others that he had not yet come; others that he had spent the night at Santa Maria.

Our foot _mozo_ did not come, and sending the rest ahead, I waited for him.

Hardly had they started, when Ramon galloped back to announce that the man was in town, that he had three animals and was nearly ready to leave.

As he, himself, had told us that he must leave Tenango at three in order to reach Las Tortugas in time for the train, this was not reassuring.

Ramon hastened on with the party.

At six the _mozo_ appeared and started at once.

In a few minutes we passed our _arriero_ who was packing, but not ready to start.

I urged him to hasten, but did not wait.

Mist had settled during the night, but it was now rising, and we could see the scenery, which, in wildness and beauty, was almost the equal of anything in Mexico, though with a character quite its own.

Our trail ran along the side of a precipice; to our left rose great cliffs presenting almost vertical faces of smooth rock; the summits were jagged, and suggested that the mass consisted of stratified rocks tilted up on end.

Just as we left town, two narrow and lofty parallel rocks suggested a gate-way.

Further down, a mass was worn out into a sharp column, a little separated from the rock mass behind.

On the right, was the precipice, ever abrupt, and sometimes the almost vertical bank of a yawning chasm.

After an hour and a half over the fairly good road, we came to a grand ascent.

It was magnificent, though difficult.

In some spots the road was muddy, and at others it was a series of rough stone steps; at still others, it was the unmodified bed of a mountain torrent.

As we followed up this gorge, side-gorges joined it, in which we glimpsed pretty cascades, pits worn by little falls, trees, the trunks of which were covered with thick sheets of green moss, quantities of tree-ferns blighted by the late frost, cliffs, and wild forms of rock, in wonderful variety.

At last I reached the summit and overtook Manuel, whose horse was completely fagged, and who had been forced to drop behind; for some time we saw the others before us, but somewhere they took a different trail, and we saw them no more.

After a considerable descent, we made our final but easy rise.

From here we were on a level road, which constantly improved until near Mepetec, while beyond it, we came to a true cart-road.

From here a fine view presented itself, over a forest of pine trees to the clean brown plain so typical of Hidalgo, swept, as we soon found, by the equally typical Hidalgo wind.

We rode rapidly from the _herrería_ of the Trinidad to Metepec, and then to Las Tortugas, where we arrived at 11:40, having been five hours and a half upon the road.

To our surprise, Louis and Ramon were not there.

Having waited some time, as it was almost the hour for the train, we ordered dinner for two, but before we had begun to eat the others appeared.

They had taken a short road, which did not go by Metepec, and travelled slowly that we might overtake them.

After a good meal, we waited for our man with the pack animals.

Meantime the train was preparing, and we watched it, realizing that if we missed it, we had a day of dust and scorching sun and heavy wind before us.

The train's crew made all ready, the cry of "_Vámonos_" was given, and we settled down in desperation to await our tardy man.

An hour after the train left, he arrived, received his fee less the two dollars, and started homeward.

Twenty-three hours later we took the train, and our season's work was done.

[Illustration] CHAPTER XXI IN THE HUAXTECA