[Illustration: FIG. 7.--Indian carrying load of bejuco, a liana used as rope in house building.] The walls between the posts are filled in with "tasistas," a small palm trunk, or in some cases with strips of split cabbage palm. The outer sides of the walls may be daubed with a mixture of mud and hair, or of chopped fiber (_pakloom_), and whitewashed, or they may be thatched with palm leaves. The floor is made of marl dust pounded down to a flat hard surface. [Illustration: PLATE 2 MAYA GIRLS FISHING] [Illustration: PLATE 3 FISH DRYING ON ONE OF THE CAYS OFF THE COAST OF YUCATAN] [Illustration: PLATE 4 a. LEAF-THATCHED HOUSE b. INDIAN HOUSE ON RIO HONDO MAYO INDIAN HOUSES] Doors and windows may be made of wickerwork of liana, of split cabbage palm, or of a frame of sticks thatched with palm leaves. When a man undertakes the building of a new house his neighbors usually help him, and the residence is ready for occupancy in a few days, as all the materials are growing ready to hand in the neighboring forest, and require only cutting down and assembling. The facility with which their dwellings are constructed, and the difficulty in getting more than one or two crops in succession from each plantation, with their primitive agricultural methods, probably account for the frequent changes in site which one notices in Indian villages. As the lands in one neighborhood become impoverished, the population has a tendency gradually to desert the old village, and start a new one in a more favorable locality. The kitchen, which is a replica of the house on a small scale, is usually placed a few yards behind it. [Illustration: FIG. 8.--Domestic altar.]