In textile work they were advanced, obtaining results with their rude hand-looms that even to-day would hold their own against the machine-made fabrics of the present day for durability and aptness of design, even as the barbaric cashmere shawl cannot be equalled by the skilled artisans of France. To-day the weavers of this region produce cloths of very attractive design and made of honest material, while their shawls or blankets are often works of art. I once watched an Indian woman weaving a girdle on a narrow loom not more than six inches wide; and without pattern before her she traced figures resembling those in the old manuscripts, though mingled with very modern-looking pictures. The country abounds in dye-stuffs, so it is not surprising that their color-sense has been well developed by use. For fibres they were limited to cotton and wool in the looms, reserving the pita and other coarser fibres for hammocks and _redes_. Pottery of good shape and well baked is found among the ruins of Utatlan, and Stephens saw a figure of terra-cotta that must have required no little skill to model and bake. All the potsherds a diligent though not extended search gave us were of dark red color, hard baked, and evidently portions of spherical vessels. Not a sign of roof-tiles was seen, nor any painted fragments, although figured work was common enough. The Quiché rivers abounded in fish, and the forests and mountains in game, while the fields produced abundant crops with little labor. No wonder the Spanish conquerors found a civilization that astonished them, a wealth which roused all their terrible cupidity, but a resistance more determined and bloody than they had found in Mexico. It may not interest my readers to go deeply into the forms of government in those ancient times, but it may be said that it was an aristocratic monarchy hereditary in this peculiar way. When the principal king (Ahau-Ahpop) of the dual reign (there were always two kings at a time) died, the crown he had worn passed to his oldest brother, who performed the functions of Ahpop-Camhá, and as second king had share in the government. The oldest son of the Ahau-Ahpop, who during the life of his father had been Nim-Chocoh-Cawek, became Ahpop-Camhá, and his cousin (son of the king’s brother), who had been Ahau-Ah-Tohil or high priest of this god, Nim-Chocoh-Cawek, the elder son of the new sovereign taking the vacant post.