CHAPTER VII.
CUERNAVACA.TEMISCO.

XOCHICALCO.
[Illustration: SPANISH-MEXICAN SADDLE AND ITS APPURTENANCES.] Much too soon, as we thought, the day came when we had arranged to leave Tezcuco and return to Mexico, to prepare for a journey into the tierra caliente.

On the evening of our return to the capital there was a little earthquake, but neither of us noticed it; and thus we lost our one chance, and returned to England without having made acquaintance with that peculiar sensation.
The purchase of horses and saddles and other equipments for our journey, gave us an opportunity of poking about into out-of-the-way corners of the city, and seeing some new phases of Mexican life; and certainly we made the most of the chance.

We made acquaintance with horse-dealers, who brought us horses to try in the courtyard of the great house of our friends the English merchants in the Calle Seminario, and there showed off their paces, walking, pacing, and galloping.

To trot is considered a disgusting vice in a Mexican horse; and the universal substitute for it here is the _paso_, a queer shuffling run, first, the two legs on one side together, and then the other two.