or might not be included in the laborer's contract. When the laborer wished to move to another farm, he made arrangements with its owner by which the latter would pay the former employer the amount of the laborer's card account. The man was then transferred. The advances on card accounts often reached 500 pesos or more. The wage of the debt laborers in cash was four pesos a month, in addition to which they received 500 ears of corn, 20 pounds of beans, salt, house rent, medicines, and two bottles of alcohol.
The intermittent workers were bound to work only four days out of each week. They received lodging and four pesos a month without any supplemental allowances.
In other parts of Chiapas still other variants were found. In some districts there were meseros, or month workers, usually Indians who owed more than they could pay. Their contracts differed from those of the debt servant above described in that they worked one month for the master and one for themselves. They did not live on the farm but in their own homes, which were often distant from the place of work. As in the case of the other debt peons the master assumed their debt and paid them their wages and a ration of corn. Another class were the baldios, who lived on the place but worked land for themselves, built their own houses, and paid from two to four days' labor per month for their privileges. They were under obligation to work for the master for a peso or nine reales a week when he called upon them. Occasionally there were share workers and advance-payment week workers. The best paid
