They are gourds, which are throttled with bandages while young, so as to make them grow into the shape of bottles with necks.

Then they are hung up to dry; and the inside being cleaned out through a small hole near the stalk, they are ready for use, holding two or three pints of water.

A couple of inches of a corn-cob (the inside of a ear of Indian corn) makes a capital cork; and the bottle is hung by a loop of string to the pummel of the saddle, where it swings about without fear of breaking.
One may see gourds, prepared in just the same way, in Italy, hanging up under the eaves of the little farm-houses, among the festoons of red and yellow ears of Indian corn; and indeed the gourd-bottle is a regular institution of Southern Europe.
We sent Antonio on with the horses to Cuernavaca, and started by the Diligence early one morning, accompanied by one of our English friends, whom I will call--as every-one else did--Don Guillermo.

It is the regular thing here, as in Spain, to call everybody by his or her Christian name.

You may have known Don Antonio or Don Felipe for weeks before you happen to hear their surnames.
The road ran at first over the plain, among great water-meadows, with herds of cattle pasturing, and fields of wheat and maize.