Juty, 1898. Ruins oF XKICHMOOK, YuCATAN—THOmpPSON. 225 
flints of various kinds, chalcedony chips, beads of jade, chalcedony 
and terra cotta, hammer-stones, with fragments of idols and stucco 
figures. Many of these objects are illustrated in the accompanying 
plates. 
CHULTUNES OR RESERVOIRS. 
Throughout this ruin group, as is the case with most ruins dis- 
tant from natural water supply (cenotes or water caves), we found 
many subterranean chamber-like reservoirs intended to receive and 
hold the rain water falling during the rainy season. Generally each 
principal structure has one or more of these reservoirs, as may be seen 
in the plan. As a rule they are in the terrace substructure of the 
building or cluster of buildings to which they belong, though some- 
times they are dug in the ground. They are of course filled with 
debris and choked by vegetable growth, and require to be cleaned out 
before examination can proceed. Some are merely the pits made in 
getting out the white earth used in building. The walls are in all 
cases finished with a thick coating of white stucco. The builders of 
these structures sometimes took advantage of the plastic nature of the 
stucco to model upon the surface various figures in high relief. 
Reservoir No. 16 is a low chamber with a curiously long slender 
orifice that barely permitted the passage of my body; it had painted 
upon its walls a phallic emblem and the figure of a turtle. A plan 
and profile of this cistern appears in Fig. 28, and similar examples are 
illustrated in Figs. 29 and 30. 
Three leagues northeast of Xkichmook lies the Indian ranche of 
Nucuchtuk, built on the site of asmall group of ruins. Within the 
group I encountered and excavated a most singularchultune. It was 
extremely shallow and, unlike the previously described examples, 
was quite close to the surface and very wide. Its walls have a most 
curious assortment of figures worked in stucco. Close by the orifice 
upon either side were two nondescript figures, and distributed around 
the walls were an ape, a wild turkey, a deer-like animal, a serpent 
and a frog. These are shown imperfectly in connection with the 
section of the reservoir in Fig. 31. I have personally explored the 
depths of more than a hundred chultunes, but this exceeds in interest 
any other | have found. 
Excavation in the other reservoirs yielded water jars, generally 
in fragments, beads, lance heads and rubbing stones. 
In the ruin group of Labna many of the chultunes were closed 
