send complaint to the jefe; send for a messenger at once to carry my report.”  At this stage, the policemen returned, telling me that the young man wanted did not belong to this town; that he could not be found, and probably had gone home.  We told them that we did not believe them, but that we would proceed with our work; however, I said, that, if he really were a stranger but appeared again, I should order his immediate arrest and jailing.  To this they all agreed; and we continued work until the town was again too drunk for anything to be done.

[Illustration:  ORGANO CACTUS; TLACOLULA]

[Illustration:  WHERE TREE FERNS GROW]

About the middle of the afternoon, when the bull-fighting was at its height, the young man wanted appeared in the ring as the chief fighter and attraction of the day.  Stepping at once to the policemen I told them that he must be brought immediately to the town-house,—­that the bull-fight must cease while our matters were arranged.  With much grumbling and complaint they obeyed.  The young man dismounted from his bull and was brought by the policeman before us.  Here we asked the sindico the name and residence of the young man; and, as we supposed, he belonged in Mitla.  Asking him why he had not come to be measured when he was told to do so, he replied that we had already measured him.  Telling him that lying would not save him, I commanded him to appear the following morning for measurement,—­that otherwise he would be sent a prisoner to Oaxaca.  In the morning he did not appear until officials were sent to bring him.  After he had gone through the ordeal of measurement he swore eternal friendship to me, and at no time afterward was I able to pass him, on the street or in the square, without his begging me to drink tepache with him.

Mitla is famous for its weaving; fine mantas of wool are made there in two chief styles—­one a long strip of black or blue-black cloth, the other a rich red, sometimes banded or striped with black.  These Mitla mantas are widely sold to Zapotecs, in all the district around, and form the characteristic women’s dress.  The Zapotecs of this district wear something on their feet that more nearly resembles true shoes than the footgear of any other Indians in southern Mexico.  The sandal of the man has a projecting heel-flap which is bound around the ankles by means of thongs, and forms a good protection to the hind part of the foot.  The women have not only such a flap, even higher than that used by the men, but also a broad strip of leather over the forward part of the foot, leaving the toes peeping out in front; between the heel flap and the toe covering, the foot is quite as well enclosed, excepting for the toes, as in a white man’s shoe.