[Illustration] CHAPTER XVI. THE EARTH-NUTS.--A WILD-CAT'S FEAST.--ANOTHER EXPLORING EXPEDITION TO THE CAVE.--THE BATS.--EXCAVATIONS IN A TOMB. While making our way through the brush-wood, in the hopes of putting up some game of a more appetizing nature than the _opossum_, our feet became entangled in the fibrous and creeping branches of the earth-nut, called by the Indians _tlalcacahuatl_. Although the stems were still covered with white flowers, l'Encuerado dug up the soil in which the fruit had buried itself in order to complete its ripening, and there found a quantity. The _tlalcacahuatl_, which is classed by botanists in the leguminous order, produces yellowish, wrinkled pods, each containing three or four kernels, which are eaten after being roasted in their shells; their taste is something like that of a chestnut. It is now cultivated to some extent in Europe, and the nut produces an oil which does not readily turn rancid, and is used in Spain in the manufacture of soap. Lucien and l'Encuerado were the most pleased at the discovery, for they were very fond of these earth-nuts, which, on the days of religions festivals, are sold by heaps in front of the Mexican churches. "It is the day but one after Ascension-day," cried the Indian; "we certainly can not hear Mass, but, at all events, we can try to please God by eating pea-nuts in His honor." The sun was beginning to sink, and hunger dictated to us that we should hasten our steps. I therefore led my companions towards the bivouac. We had but just started again, when five or six hares came giddily running almost between our legs. Lucien was skillful enough to shoot one, and Sumichrast knocked down another. L'Encuerado loaded with the game, we proceeded to our hut. Being now reassured as to our bill-of-fare for dinner by this unexpected windfall, I kept on walking towards the entrance of a glade, the soil of which, being quite burrowed, betrayed the presence of the moles. Each of us lay down under the shade of a tree. Chance led me under a robinia or iron-wood tree, the trunk of which will defy the best-tempered axe. In front of me stood a _tepehuage_, a kind of mahogany-tree, with dark-colored foliage, which will become, some day, the object of considerable trade between Europe and Mexico; the beauty of this red wood, veined with black, renders it highly fitted for the manufacture of furniture. Gringalet had followed the Indian. I advised Lucien to keep silence, so as to observe the operations of the moles, who would be certain to come out of their burrows as soon as the sun set. In fact, first one, then two, and at last twenty made their appearance; and in less than a quarter of an hour I counted more than a hundred engaged in throwing up the ground, playing about, and fighting, all the time uttering shrill cries. Lucien was much amused as he watched them squatting down on their hinder parts, making grimaces, and gnawing the roots and bark.