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, and stood waiting for her to begin the conversation. she was accompanied by another lady, neither of whom could speak english, while the englishman did not know a word of any language but his own. the situation was awkward, and after both had pronounced several phrases that the other side could not comprehend, the englishman bowed and proceeded to walk away. the lady repeated the merida salutation, and this puzzled the stranger more than ever, as he supposed she wished him to follow. he gallantly complied, and walked demurely along till he happened to meet the gentleman who had introduced him. explanations followed, and all parties concerned had a good laugh over the occurrence. it is probable that the englishman's laugh was less hearty than that of the others, as he could not fail to be somewhat mortified at his awkward misunderstanding.
"in the fashionable hours for strolling on the paseo everybody is there, and no matter how often you meet any one whom you know you are expected to salute. this keeps everybody on the alert, as the turns of the paseo are likely to bring the same individuals face to face every few minutes.
scene in a ball-room.
"it was our good-fortune to be in merida in the season of dancing,
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and we were invited to go to a ball, in fact to several balls. we went first to an aristocratic one, which was given in the casino, a large, two-storied building, with balconies or verandas all around, and brilliantly lighted. it is built around a court-yard planted with tropical trees and flowers in great profusion, and is a very attractive place.
"the ball-room occupied three sides of the upper story of the building, while the fourth contained the dressing and supper rooms. the orchestra was in the corridor just outside the dancing-hall, and while everybody could hear the music, very few could see the musicians. we got there before the dance began and while the ladies were coming out of the dressing-rooms and taking seats at the side of the ball-room, very much as they are seated in other countries. we observed that the gentlemen held the ladies by the hand as they escorted them to their seats, and not by giving them their arms as we do.
"it was a real beauty show when the ladies were ranged along the wall, and they seemed to know it just as well as did their admirers, who congregated at one end of the hall and in the corridors, and smoked cigarettes. the gentlemen chatted with each other with more or less animation, but watched the line of señoritas, whose eyes sparkled like diamonds and were a sharp contrast to their pearly white teeth. under the light the señoritas' complexions were as glowing as that of a young english girl; of course, we cannot say how much of it is due to nature, and how much to cosmetics. they all had splendid heads of coal-black hair, arranged in the tasteful way for which spanish ladies are famous.
"the music struck up for a waltz, and then each gentleman advanced towards the lady of his choice, and whirled her away for the round of the hall. the theory of these balls is that everybody knows everybody else, and the gentlemen did not ask the ladies whether they wanted to dance or not. of course, it is to be presumed that they were there with that object in view, but we thought it would be more graceful if they had been consulted before being lifted from their seats and set in motion.
"we had wondered how it was possible for people to dance in this hot atmosphere, but when we heard how slowly the music played, and saw that the waltz was only a slow gliding and sliding over the floor, as though the waltzers were not more than half awake, we wondered no longer. it is nothing like the exciting whirl of a waltz in northern countries; and the same may be said of the other dances of this very select assemblage. we remained half an hour or so, and then went to the mestizo ball, where it was a good deal more animated.
"the mestizo girls wore the white dresses already described; some of
