followed; two others, unarmed, followed, and, with this escort, we started to hunt our ruins on the mountain.  They proved to be two heaps of rubbish, from constructions of stone.  Had we had time for serious investigation they might have proved of interest; as it was, we spent but a few minutes in their inspection, and then, bidding our drunken escort good-bye, we continued our journey.  We had planned to go first to Nehuatzen, thence to Parracho, and, after visiting Cheran, back again to Nehuatzen.  At the mogote, however, we were already near the Parracho highway and at once struck into it.  Our journey led through forests, chiefly of pine, with open glades, at intervals; on many of the trees we saw great bunches of a parasite that bore honeysuckle-like, yellow flowers.  Parracho we found lying at the base of mountains at the very end of a long stretch of level.  It is an unattractive town, our only reason for visiting which was to see something of the manufacture of its famous rebozos, which differ from others in the wide border of white and azure blue silk, which is attached to a netted foundation to form decorative patterns, representing birds and animals, or geometric figures.  The work is curious, and I am inclined to see in it a surviving imitation of the ancient feather-work for which the ancient Tarascans were famous.  From Parracho our road led through Aranza to Cheran.  Just beyond Aranza we passed over the astonishing wash from some summer torrent.  During the wet season a single rain may fill the gorges, sheet the mountain slopes with water, tear great trees from their hold, break off mighty rock fragments and carry them onward, like wooden blocks, with hundreds of tons of finer gravel.  At this season there was not a sign of water; not a trickling thread was visible in any of the gorges; but from their now dried mouths there spread fan-shaped deposits many rods in length and breadth, containing quantities of blocks of rock that measured from four to ten feet in diameter, trunks of trees up to two feet in thickness, all in the greatest confusion and at places completely covering our road to a depth of several feet.  We could trace the tailing out of the fans of deposit, from their thicker, heavier part at the base of the torrent, to their margin on the plain; from heavy rock masses weighing tons, through smaller masses, into sand and gravel.

[Illustration:  HOUSES AT URUAPAN]

The way to Cheran seemed endless, but at last we reached that interesting, great indian town, when the afternoon was nearly spent.  It was the New Year, and the street celebration of los negritos (the negroes—­or the little negroes) was in progress.  As we rode through the streets, however, we attracted much attention and the performance was neglected.  We rode directly to the town-house, entered and asked for the presidente.  He was slow in appearing and long before he arrived scores of people were crowding around the doors and