Amongst other curious customs practiced by those queer people the following were impressed on my memory: That Mexico City has funeral street cars, which I have not seen in any other part of the world. To understand my point more clearly, the electric street cars running on rails with an electric car as a hearse, pick up the dead bodies and carry them to the graveyard or cemetery. Here the coffin is unlocked and the corpse must be examined and clearly identified to the complete satisfaction of the caretaker, after which the coffin is again locked and the corpse buried in a grave or tomb leased for seven years. At the end of seven years or thereabouts, out of the tomb or grave the remains must go unless the lease is renewed or the grave bought forever at an enormous sum of about $400. As I had not sufficient command of the Spanish language to enable me to put the question direct to the natives and obtain information from their lips without the assistance of an interpreter, the figures set down for me as the prices of a grave are so much at variance, as well as the form of procedure in evicting a dead man from his grave in Mexico, that I leave that part of the matter to abler authorities. In connection with the wakes of their dead, in our camps I noticed that they did drink a milk-like liquid called "pulgue," extracted from the mague or century plant. It has the taste, color and appearance of milk, but it is so intoxicating that if a person should drink any large quantity of it he would become so drunk and helpless that a stranger would believe he was dead and would never wake again. At the few wakes that came under my notice, the Mexicans were very orderly and showed every mark of respect to the dead. I believe there were no pipes or tobacco at those wakes, or if there were any they escaped my notice. At San Francisco, California, the Chinese put food on their burial plots for their dead, but the "hoboes" visiting that city steal the food and eat it as often as they can get at it. [13] Dancing masters between 1775 and 1780 were paid sixpence (twelve cents) a quarter with meals for teaching dancing to a whole family. However, a dancing master's quarter was much less than three months. [14] The custom of hanging bells to horses, cattle, sheep and goats is very common in the Republic of Old Mexico, also in the States of Nevada and California in the United States. Without those bells goats, sheep and cattle could not be located amongst the thick brush. [15] Whisky is the water of death to every person. The saloonkeeper, or publican, who gives drink to a child or young girl under the age of 21 years is the devil's best agent on earth.