Leaving Puebla on the early morning train, and taking the Pachuca branch at Ometusco, we changed cars at Tepa onto the narrow-gauge Hidalgo road for Tulancingo, which took us by a winding course through a great maguey country.  After two hours of riding, in the latter part of which we were within sight of a pretty lakelet, we reached Tulancingo.  Broad avenues, bordered with handsome trees, connected the station with the town, in the plaza of which we shortly found ourselves.  This plaza consists of a large square, planted with trees, with an open space before it, and is surrounded by various shops and the great church.  It is pretentious, but desolate.  In front of the treed space, were temporary booths erected for the carnival, in which dulces, aguas frescas, and cascarones were offered for sale.  Hawkers on the streets were selling cascarones, some of which were quite elaborate.  The simplest were egg-shells, dyed and stained in brilliant colors, and filled with bits of cut paper; these were broken upon the heads of persons as they passed, setting loose the bits of paper which became entangled in the hair and scattered over the clothing.  Some had, pasted over the open ends, little conical caps of colored tissue-paper.  Others consisted of a lyre-shaped frame, with an eggshell in the center of the open part.  Some had white birds, single or in pairs, hovering over the upper end.  The carnival was on in full force, and we saw frequent bands of maskers.  They went in companies of a dozen or so, dressed like clowns, with their clothing spotted and striped with red.  Their faces were concealed by cloth.  They walked rapidly, almost ran, through the streets.  They spoke to no one, and did nothing except to keep up a loud and constant trilling of the most ridiculous kind.  Packs of youngsters chased behind and crowded upon them; they also pelted them with stones, and the head of one of the maskers was bleeding quite profusely, but he still kept up his headlong run and trilling.  We had counted upon the assistance of the jefe, but found him too dignified to receive us outside of office hours, and therefore we arranged the matter of our transportation to Huachinango.  The price was high, the coach inconvenient, and the cochero unaccommodating.  In vain we tried to have all of our plaster taken in the load with us; only one-half could go, the balance must follow the succeeding day.  Finally, at about ten in the morning, we lumbered heavily away, and were soon out of the town, passing through a brown, hilly district, at first devoted to pulque plantations, but further along becoming fine pastureland.  Neat fields, separated by bands of yellow, unplowed stubble, and true farm-houses of good size, were striking features.  We passed through quantities of pine groves, and everywhere a cold wind blew strongly in our faces.  At one place, we were obliged to dismount and walk, on account of the