The furniture is of the simplest, consisting of a small round cedar table, with a little bowl-shaped projection which contains a lump of masa when tortillas are being made and chili peppers or salt at mealtimes. The seats are mere blocks of wood, 3 or 4 inches high (_caanche_), with perhaps one or two more pretentious low hollow-backed wooden chairs covered with deer skin or "tiger" skin. A number of calabashes of all shapes and sizes, with a few earthen water jars, iron cooking pots, and plaques for baking tortillas, are found in all houses. Hammocks (_káan_) of cotton or henequen fiber are always conspicuous articles of furniture, as they are slung all around the room, making it very difficult to move about in it when they are let down. In many houses contact with the hammocks is not desirable, as lice have a habit of leaving the body of the hammock during the day and secreting themselves in the knots between the body and the arms, whence they may transfer themselves to the garments of the unwary. If the hammock is large the father and mother often sleep in one, their heads at opposite ends, while the smaller children, frequently to the number of three or four, occupy another. There can be no such thing as privacy, as the whole family commonly sleep, live, and eat in a single room, which at most is divided into two apartments by a flimsy cotton curtain. A prominent object in most Indian houses is an altar (_canche_), or high square table, upon which stands a wooden cross (fig. 8). The altar is covered with a cotton cloth, embroidered in flowers and religious symbols; the cross is draped with ribbon or strips of colored fabric, and sometimes with crude models, in silver or gold, of legs, arms, and hands, representing thank offerings to some favorite Santo for the healing of corresponding parts of the body. Little images in wax, and, if the Indian can obtain them, religious oleographs and medallions, with colored-glass vases, are commonly found upon the altar, which is frequently dressed with fresh flowers. The Indian's only tool is his machete, a heavy cutlass-like knife, about 16 inches long; with this he cuts and cleans his milpa, makes his house and most of his furniture, digs postholes, and fights and defends himself. His indispensable belongings consist of a hammock, a few calabashes and pots, a machete, and a cotton suit, all of which he can carry slung over his back in a macapal; with his wife and dogs trotting behind him, he can leave his old home and seek pastures new with a light heart and untroubled mind, knowing that the bush will provide for all his needs. POTTERY MAKING