Guatemala: the Land of the Quetzal: A SketchScribner, 1887 - 453 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
Agua Alta Verapaz Alvarado Amatitlan ancient Antigua ants Atitlan bananas Barrios Belize cacao Cakchiquels capital Caribs Central America cents Chiquimula Chixoy Chocon church coast Coban coconut coffee cohune color common crater cultivated dark dollars earthquake eruption Escuintla exported flowers forest formicarium four Frank fruit Fuego Government grow Guatemala City Guatemaltecan Historia Honduras Hunahpu hundred feet inches Indian Indios inhabitants Jefe José Jutiapa kings Lago de Izabal lake land lava Livingston London Madrid mahogany Mexico miles morning mountains mozos native Nicaragua night nuts Pacaya Pacific palms Paris plantains plants Plaza Polochic pounds present Quezaltenango Quiché Quirigua region republic Rio Chocon Rio Dulce river road ruins San Salvador Santa Santiago seen señora shore side Sololà Spaniards Spanish steamer steep stem stone stream thousand tion town trees usually Utatlan valley vegetable Verapaz volcanoes vols Vucub-caquix walls Yucatan Zacapa
Popular passages
Page 420 - The whole country is divided into eighteen districts, and in all of them were so many and such stately stone buildings that it was amazing, and the greatest wonder is, that having no use of any metal, they were able to raise such structures, which seem to have been temples, for their houses were always of timber and thatched.
Page 431 - Spanish America; or a Descriptive, Historical, and Geographical Account of the Dominions of Spain, in the Western Hemisphere...
Page 432 - Containing the most exact relation hitherto publish'd, of their unparallel'd cruelties on the Indians, in the destruction of above forty millions of people. With the propositions offer'd to the King of Spain, to prevent the further ruin of the West Indies.
Page 416 - I made several trials of it, and found it most efficacious in turning a large column of the ants. A little of it sprinkled across one of their paths in dry weather has a most surprising effect. As soon as one of the ants touches the white powder, it commences to run about wildly, and to attack any other ant it comes across. In a couple of hours, round balls of the ants will be...
Page 431 - Idea de una Nueva Historia General de la America Septentrional [Madrid, 1746], p.
Page 417 - I have mentioned of two relays of workmen carrying out the ant food, can scareely be blind instinct. Some of the ants make mistakes, and carry in unsuitable leaves. Thus grass is always rejected by them, but I have seen some ants, perhaps young ones, carrying leaves of grass ; but after a while these pieces are always brought out again and thrown away. I can imagine a young ant getting a severe earwigging from one of the major-domos for its stupidity.
Page 393 - The clocktower of the cathedral carried a great part of that edifice with it in its fall. The towers of the church of San Francisco crushed the episcopal oratory and part of the palace. The church of Santo Domingo was buried beneath its towers, and the college of the Assumption was entirely ruined. The...
Page 433 - Cockburn (John). A Journey over Land from the Gulf of Honduras to the Great South Sea. Performed by John Cockburn and Five other Englishmen, who were taken by a Spanish Guarda Costa in the John and Jane...
Page 415 - with their burdens, they cast them down on the top of the slope, whence they rolled down to the bottom, where another relay of labourers picked them up and carried them to the new burrow. It was amusing to watch the ants hurrying out with bundles of food, dropping them over the slope, and rushing back immediately for more. They also brought out great numbers of dead ants that the fumes of the carbolic acid had killed. A few days afterwards, when I visited the locality again, I found both the old...
Page 415 - ... burrows ; I could hear it rumbling down to the lowest depths of the formicarium four or five feet from the surface. The effect was all that I could have wished : the marauding parties were at once drawn off from my garden to meet the new danger at home. The whole formicarium was disorganised. Big fellows came stalking up from the cavernous regions below, only to descend again in the utmost perplexity. Next day I found them busily employed bringing up the ant-food from the old burrows, and carrying...