None, however, was so extraordinary as that of which several told us, the late _secretario_ of the town, who had a goitre of such size that, when he sat at the table to write, he had to lift the swelling with both hands and place it on the table before he began work.

The former prevalence of the disease is abundantly suggested by the frequency of deaf-mutes, a score or more of whom live here--all children of goitrous parents.

Bad as was San Bartolome, it seemed to us surpassed by San Antonio, where we found the disease in an aggravated form, while at Nenton, our first point in Guatemala, every one appeared affected, although we saw no dreadful cases.
San Bartolome is an almost purely indian town, where for the first time our attention was called to the two sets of town officials--indian and _ladino_.

The indian town government consisted of four Indians of pure blood, who wore the native costume.

This, here, is characteristic, both for men and women.