There is a second native market in the western part of the city. Near this market is a road which is the great highway for the market people coming from lowland and highland. It was a sight that never grew tame or monotonous to me to watch the never-ending procession of men, women, children, burros, and mules continually coming to the city, and, on several mornings, I went out to watch it. Men and women come marching down the middle of the road in Indian file—the men with great loads on their backs, and the women with large market baskets on their heads, filled with fruits, vegetables, pottery, eggs or poultry. Oftentimes they travel for three or four days to market with nothing but the cold stones or mother earth at night for a bed. The whole load, when marketed, may not bring more than a couple of dollars in gold, but they would consider that pretty good pay for a week’s work. In this way the fruits of the hot lands are brought to the city by those simple folks in just the same manner as their ancestors have done ever since the founding of the city. Sometimes an Indian bearing fodder or other provender is scarcely visible underneath his load. It is rather comical to see an enormous box about the size of a small house trotting down the street on what seems to be its own pair of brown legs. Little boys and little girls, as soon as large enough, assume their share of the burdens and carry their little bundles in the same way as their elders. One writer describes a market woman whom he saw as follows: “She carried an open-work basket of fowls and ducks on her back on which was also slung a baby; in her arms she carried a fine young pig, and on her head was a tray of _tortillas_. As she jogged along the baby cried, the porker squealed and the poultry made noise enough to drown her own groans.” [Illustration: GUATEMALAN MARKET WOMEN.] Numerous public buildings are scattered over the city. Perhaps the most noted is the University of Guatemala, which has a great reputation all over Central America. As a matter of fact Guatemala City was noted for its learning before any educational institution had been established in the United States; and dust had accumulated on its library before the first little red school house had made its appearance. This university has many professors, contains a large and valuable collection of books, pamphlets and manuscripts, and its museum has a numerous and exhaustive collection of woods, birds, pottery, gods, and ornaments of the former races, and stuffed specimens of birds, including a number of the rare quetzal. There are also Schools of Medicine and Pharmacy, Arts and Trades, a Polytechnic Institute, hospitals, court house, and many other institutions of government and justice. The post office is situated in an old convent confiscated from the church, and the same is true of a number of the other government buildings now in use.