blankets made of ixtli, the strong fibre of the maguey.  Like the enaguas, they usually consist of two pieces, side by side, stitched together with some bright color.  The fibre, which is gotten from the leaves partly by maceration, partly by beating, is spun in a primitive fashion.  Almost every woman one meets upon the road, no matter what burden of babies or goods she carries, has a hank of the fibre thrown over her shoulder, and keeps her little spindle whirling, spinning the strong thread as she walks.  Her spindle consists of a slender stick thrust through a whorl of baked pottery.  Such whorls are no longer made, but the ancient ones, called by the Aztec name malacates, are picked up in the fields and reapplied to their old use.  Usually the ixtli thread is left of its original grey or white color, but sometimes the fibre is dyed, a fine shade of orange being favored.  The ixtli thread is woven into ayates, which are used for carrying burdens.  Vegetables, charcoal, babies—­anything—­are put into them.  Two ends are tied together to hold the burden in place, and the other two are passed across the breast and tied in front.  These blankets are astonishingly strong and unyielding.

At evening, after a fair day’s work, we made our way on foot across the valley and up the long slope to the summit of the ridge on which lay Huixquilucan, the official centre of a municipality of 11,000 persons.  Of these, 3,000 live in the village, while the remainder are clustered together in hamlets like San Bartolito, San Francisco, Agua Bendita, or are scattered in single-house settlements over the mountains.  Of the 11,000 persons, more than three-fourths claim to be full Otomis.  There are no truly poor in the whole town.  Every family has its field, its house, its bit of woodland.  All the people still speak the native tongue, and many speak no other.  The town is picturesquely situated upon the crest and flank of a long, narrow ridge, which is enclosed by a grand sweeping curve of lofty mountains.  The flanks of the enclosed ridge and the whole slope of the surrounding mountains are occupied by the little fields of the indians, long narrow patches separated by lines of maguey or century-plants.  The houses are built of adobe bricks with thick and solid walls, which are usually plastered on the outside and tinted white or pink.  The roofs are pitched, but with a gentle slope.  They consist of frameworks of poles upon which long narrow shingles are laid, and pegged in place with wooden pegs which project both above and below for several inches in a formidable, bristling way.  Sometimes the shingles, instead of being pegged in place, are held by stones, which in some cases weigh several pounds, and are laid in regular horizontal lines.