turies no change from those forms was ever made. Pottery was made with or without enamel, but the enameled variety was probably made only for the use of the wealthy. This variety was also sometimes ornamented with colors. The spouts and handles of the vessels, as well as the handles and feet of the stands, were frequently made in the form of the heads. of animals. I have the head of an iguana designed for this purpose, which is a marvel of strength and expression, the attitude being one of defiance or defense. The xicalli vessels were often elaborately carved with the forms of birds, animals and plants, and this ornamentation was frequently reproduced on the earthenware. Earthenware urns in the form of the human skull, containing the ashes of the dead, have been found on the Island of Ometepec, in Lake Nicaragua. Another article of pottery made by the Nahuatls was a barnacleshaped rattle, with slot-like openings on the sides, and containing a small ball, which the dancing girls held in their hands and shook in rhythm with their movements.

The language of the Aztecs was sweet, har

monious, flexible, exact, rich and expressive, notwithstanding that the alphabet, as compared with ours, was meager. It lacked the English consonants b, d, f, g, j, k, r, s, and w, but contained all the other letters, which, however, excepting v, were pronounced as they are in French. The sound of o was not well defined, but it resembled the French diphthong eu. The consonants most frequently used were 1, t, x, z, and the compound sounds tl and tz. L was never used at the beginning of a word. There were no sharp or nasal sounds in the language. The penultimate syllable of almost all the words was long. The plural was formed by changing the termination. For example: in substantives ending with tl these two letters were changed to me, thus: pitzotl (pig); pitzome (pigs). In like manner the termination hua was pluralized by que. It had no genders. Mixtli denoted lion as well as lioness. In order to distinguish the sexes, oquichtle (male) and cihuatl (female) were used, thus: oquimixtli (lion); cihuamixtli (lioness). It was without either comparatives or superlatives, but in their stead particles were employed. On the other

hand it had more diminutives and augmentatives than even the Italian. The substantives and verbs were more numerous than in any other language, and each verb, by the addition of certain letters, produced a multitude of other verbs. The union of simple words formed compound vocables, which were frequently veritable definitions of the objects denoted.

CHAPTER IX.

AS A WINTER RESORT.

NICARAGUA! Land of the Great Waterway, the gateway between the oceans! Land of sunny skies and sparkling lakes; of beautiful scenery; of mountains blue and verdant vales: of magnificent forests and flowery fields; of fruitful soil and innumerable fruits; of healthful and delightful climate!

Land of unusual attractions for the winter tourist. The salubrity of the climate, were there nothing else to commend the country, must, when it becomes easily accessible by the completion of the canal, make it a favorite winter resort for wealthy residents of the United States and also of Europe. Throat and pulmonary affections are almost unknown; indeed, I do not remember having heard a cough in the country, even in the moist atmosphere of the Atlantic coast. The dry atmosphere of the

Pacific slope, or of the elevated tablelands of the Chontales and Matagalpa districts, cannot fail to greatly benefit persons who suffer from bronchial and pulmonary troubles. Although a great sufferer from bronchitis for years and laboring under a bad attack of it when I left New York, I was entirely free from even a suggestion of the disease during my sojourn on the Pacific slope. Fevers, which in the United States are supposed to be the curse of that country, are extremely rare, and it would be hard to find another land in which so little disease of any kind prevails. But the reader who has followed me thus far has already had some statistical evidence on this subject.

The attractions are not, however, for the invalid alone. Any one who enjoys grand and beautiful scenery would be delighted with the country. The primeval tropical forest, with its gigantic trees, its exuberant vegetation, exquisite forms and glowing colors, is a living wonder. Its majestic mountains and smouldering volcanoes, with their canopies of smoke, lift one's thoughts to the plane of sublimity. The simple, polite and fun-loving people, their