The _metate_ for grinding or rubbing down the maize to be patted out into tortillas, a few calabashes for bottles, and pieces of calabashes for bowls and cups, prettily ornamented and painted, and hanging on pegs round the walls.

A few palm-leaf mats (petates) to sleep upon, some pots of thin unglazed earthenware for the cooking, which is done over a wood-fire in the middle of the floor.

A chimney is not necessary in houses which are like the Irishman's coat, consisting principally of holes.

A wooden box, somewhere, contains such of the clothes of the family as are not in wear.

There is really hardly anything I can think of to add to this catalogue, except the agricultural implements, which consist of a wooden spade, a hoe, some sharp stakes to make the drills with, and the machete--which is an iron bill-hook, and serves for pruning, woodcutting, and now and then for less peaceful purposes.
Sometimes one sees women weaving cotton-cloth, or _manta_, as it is called, in a loom of the simplest possible construction; or sitting at their doors in groups, spinning cotton-thread with the _malacates_, and apparently finding as much material for gossip here as elsewhere.
The Mexicans spun and wove their cotton-cloth just in this way before the Conquest, and malacates of baked clay are found in great numbers in the neighbourhood of the old Mexican cities.