That night was very cold, and in the morning at seven o’clock the thermometer told forty-five degrees, and the barometer stood at 8,860 feet. As usual, we went to church; this was the largest and cleanest we had yet seen, but the images, including an Indio-colored Christ, were perhaps more hideous than ever. The church has now the old Plaza (north of the new one) all to itself, and in addition a very large paved courtyard, with square chapels in the outer corners. In this courtyard we found a troop of Indian women conducting some mummery which required veils and candles, both of great size. Some of the poor women were so tipsy that they could hardly care for their candles, which were perilously near to setting their neighbors’ clothes on fire. After various marches and counter-marches, songs and responses, the performance ended in a loud explosion. Of all the Indian towns, Totonicapan is supposed to be the most Indian, and the people are thorough idolaters still, with hardly the dimmest idea of the Christian religion. They moreover dislike foreigners, as we found to our cost. The fountain and sun-dial in the old Plaza were both much out of repair, and in the Plaza Nueva the fountain supported a traditional Indian fresh from the shield of Massachusetts. Made originally, as other men are, without clothes, he had been girt with stucco,—doubtless because of the cool weather and his damp station. [Illustration: THE VALLEY OF TOTONICAPAN.] Generally the streets were paved, and drained in the middle. They intersected at right angles; and as the houses had few outside windows and the courtyard gates were almost always closed, the town had a very dull, deserted look. We did peep into some doors and windows, in a way I should hardly tolerate in any other barbarian; and by one of these window-peeps we discovered a weaver at work, who invited us to enter. The loom had two harnesses worked by the foot of the weaver, and twelve more pulled by a boy at the side; the bobbins were wound on bits of small bambu. It was a long way back in the series of the evolution of a modern carpet-loom, and yet it did its work exceedingly well, if slowly. This art of weaving has been practised in this city from most ancient times, and the Indios declare that the same utensils have been used, without essential modification. All the looms we saw were on one pattern, and they could hardly have been simpler. I bought for four dollars a large woollen bed-cover woven in elaborate design, which kept us warm while we were in these highlands.