POTTERY AND HAMMOCK MARKETS.—HAMMOCKS IN YUCATAN; THEIR GENERAL USE FOR SLEEPING PURPOSES.—YUCATEO SALUTATIONS.—AN AWKWARD SITUATION.—FASHIONABLE, MESTIZO, AND INDIAN BALLS.—CHARACTERISTIC INDIAN DANCES.—WORSHIP OF THE SUN AMONG THE ANCIENT YUCATEOS.—NATIVE MUSIC.—ZOPILOTE DANCE.—VISIT TO A HENEQUIN HACIENDA.—THE VOLAN COCHÉ; A VEHICLE OF THE COUNTRY.—A RACE AND HOW IT ENDED.—ARRIVAL AT THE HACIENDA.—THE SCRAPING AND BALING MACHINERY.—STARTING A PLANTATION.—PRICE OF THE FIBRE IN THE MARKET.—"NO MONEY IN THE BUSINESS."—FIBRE-FACTORIES IN YUCATAN.—HOW THE OWNERS OF ESTATES LIVE.
HAMMOCK LODGINGS IN THE COUNTRY.
"The market we have described," wrote Fred, "is for the sale of articles of food only. There is another market where pottery, cotton fabrics, and other miscellaneous wares are sold, and still another which is entirely given up to the makers and venders of hats and hammocks. Hammock-making is a great industry in Yucatan, and thousands of these articles are sent to New York, London, and other foreign ports. A curious
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circumstance about this industry is that the best hammocks are those for home consumption; the foreign markets are unwilling to pay the prices of the fine qualities, and consequently none are sent away except upon special orders. When you next buy a Yucatan hammock in New York you may make up your mind that it is one in which only a very poor man here would sleep.
VIEW ON A BACK STREET.
"Hammocks are in use for sleeping purposes all through this country, and the natives prefer them to beds. Our personal experience is that a hammock is a very good thing to lounge in, or even to take a nap, but for an all-night sleep it doesn't give the rest and refreshment to the tired body that we find in a bed. But habit has a great deal to do with this, as with many other things of life; a Japanese pillow is torture to a European quite as much as the European one is to a Japanese.
"The advantages claimed for a hammock are that the sleeper is protected from many insects that would trouble him in a bed, and the opportunity for the air to circulate, which is a very desirable matter in a hot country. Both these arguments are well founded, and so is the further one that the hammock-sleeper can carry his bed with him, as it weighs only a few ounces and can be rolled into a small parcel.
"We asked the prices and were staggered at the figures. In New
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York we think $2 a good price, and the majority of the hammocks sold there bring $1 or $1.50 each. The cheapest they showed us was $7, and they had them all the way up to $15, $18, $20, $25, and even $30. The dealer said that if these were not fine enough for our purpose we might have them made to order, and he could give us something superb for $50. We bought some of the cheapest kind, and they were far better than anything we ever saw at home. The best qualities are made of very fine fibre, and if care is taken with them they last for several years.
"While walking along the streets near the market we met some ladies to whom we had been introduced. They recognized and saluted us; they were on the opposite sidewalk, and at first we thought they were beckoning for us to cross over to their side. Then we remembered what we had been told about the Yucateo form of salutation, and replied by raising our hats and bowing. This is what they did:
"Each lady raised her hand until it was on a level with her eyes, and then she 'wiggled' her fingers back and forth in a way that is impossible to describe in words. It is very much what one would do in our country if she wished to speak to you, and we can readily believe what we have been told, that this form of salutation is a great puzzle to the stranger.
"One day an Englishman, who was thus saluted, went up to his fair recognizer, a lady to whom he had been presented at a party on the previous evening, an............