MEXICO

There are in Mexico nearly 500 tribes and more than 200 languages, some differing from others as much as French from Chinese.

In the 400 miles between Oaxaca and Acapulco, Maureen Herbert, James Sturken, and I, put afoot when our bus "decomposed" at Mitla, walked across four racial and linguistic frontiers-the Zapotec, Chatino, Mixtec, and Negro. At Tlacolula we were close to yet another tribe, the Mixe, distantly related to the Mayas of Yucatan. Even so, we have omitted the Amusgos (Amishgos), Tlapanecos, and isolated colonies of Aztecs, all of whom retain "islands" in Mixtec territory.

The physical characteristics of Mexico are as varied as the civilizations. Vegetation and scenery change with almost every league, the enormous variations in altitude enabling one to pass from subarctic to tropical climate in a single day. Sometimes within a few hours we saw eagles from the high mountains and parrots from the tropical jungle.

Our route is unlikely to attract tourists. There is no railway, no road, no hotel, no bed, no butter or fresh vegetables, and the discomfort has recently increased since the virtual destruction by earthquakes of nearly half the towns we passed.

The white man seldom travels in this region. He is not only excellent bait for the numerous bandits on wilder stretches of the road, but an object of suspicion among quite well-intentioned Indians, who imagine he is searching for gold. They have never forgotten the Spaniards' quest for treasure, and to say you are collecting beetles or studying architecture is to them absurd. They are victims, too, of even stranger traditions, notably that the white man desires to fatten Indians and boil them for lubricating oil, or to steal native babies for similar "reduction" as airplane fuel.

For many reasons we deemed it advisable to disguise ourselves and to travel as the poorest peon. We emerged from the market of Oaxaca in white and purple trousers, heavy leather sandals, and broad-brimmed straw hats. Over our shoulders, and chiefly for use at night, we carried large woolen Oaxaca blankets, or serapes-blue, white, and black. Our money we carried in stout leather belts, all of it in silver and copper coin, for bills are not accepted in villages where men cannot read their value.

Finally, we gathered machetes, a dagger, old flour sacks to contain food, and for water a glass garraion neatly dressed in a straw jacket like a bottle of Chianti. All these "personal effects" we fitted into brilliantly colored string bags.

We set out for Tlacolula, the railhead, near Mitla, and there invested in two donkeys. Unfortunately, these proved too decrepit to carry both passengers and baggage-a fact we did not discover until we had footed the bill and hopefully baptized those pathetic animals "Pegasus" and "Pullman."

Chiefly for the donkeys' benefit, we engaged a donkey-driver, guide, or "porter." I doubt whether he had ever driven, directed, or counseled donkeys before, since…"