Anahuac

Anahuac, subtitled Or, Mexico and the Mexicans, Ancient and Modern, is by Edward B. Tylor. A chapter in the contents list covers Cuba, Volantes, a Cuban railway, passports, the Isle of Pines, mosquitos and pirates. A further chapter in the contents list names Yucatan, Vera Cruz and Don Ignacio Comonfort.

The text describes a cave where a little wooden cross still marks the spot where the skeleton of an Indian was found. The text says that, to those still far down in the cave, the entrance was only illuminated by reflected light, but as the Indians reached it the direct rays of sunlight fell upon them and their white dresses shone with an intense phosphoric light, as though they had been self-luminous. The writer and companions stayed a few days longer at Cocoyotla, never tiring of the beautiful garden with its groves of orange-trees and cocoanut-palms. The text names water-bottles as part of the equipment and says they are gourds, throttled with bandages while young so as to make them grow into the shape of bottles with necks.