Passing us, they journeyed onward to an open space at the end of town, where, with many others who had reached there sooner, they camped for the night.

The next day we constantly passed such parties of pilgrims; coming or going to this shrine which lay a little off the road between Acala and San Bartolome.

In one group, we counted ninety pilgrims.
[Illustration: RIVER BETWEEN CHIAPA AND ACALA] [Illustration: THE INDIAN GOVERNMENT AT SAN BARTOLOME] We had been told that San Bartolome was full of goitre, and we really found no lack of cases.

It is said that forty years ago it was far more common than now, and that the decrease has followed the selection of a new water source and the careful piping of the water to the town.

In the population of two thousand, it was estimated that there might be two hundred cases, fifty of which were notable.