sell _tortillas, chalupas_, and _pulque_ to passengers; few travellers
from the United States, passing over this road, have failed to notice
the dark and ugly faces of these sellers, and have received their first
impression of the indians of Mexico from seeing them. Our party, three
in number, reached Dos Rios in the morning and began work at the station
with the women who were selling there. Dr. Powell, as our interpreter,
undertook the personal dealings, and our material, as was to be
expected, was chiefly women. When we came to record the names of
our subjects, we found that every woman's first name was Maria, the
differentiation between them being first found in the middle name. They
were little creatures, scarcely larger than well grown girls of eleven
or twelve among ourselves. Some old women, with grey hair and wrinkled
faces who piously kissed our hands when they met us, were among the
smallest. Now and then some young woman or girl was attractive, but
usually their faces were suspicious, sad, and old before their time. The
skin was a rich brown; the eyebrows heavily haired, often meeting above
the nose; the hair grew low upon the forehead, and in young women the
forehead itself was covered with a fine downy black growth. The nose
was flat, broad, and depressed at the roots, while its tip was flat and
wide. The eyes were dark brown and the hair was black and coarse. If we
were to judge the population by the women only, we might call the
Otomis true pygmies. The average stature of 28 subjects was 1,435
millimeters--while Sir William Flower's limit for pygmy peoples is 1,500
millimeters.

[Illustration: OTOMI INDIAN GIRLS; HUIXQUILUCAN]

[Illustration: THE MOON-STONE, AT DOS RIOS STATION]

Many of the women whom we measured and photographed carried babies; the