GAN.v] MAYA INDIANS OF YUCATAN AND BRITISH HONDURAS 139 



with A'arious aromatic su])stan('os; when biiriiod it gave off a very 

 pleasant odor. The gum had evidently been poured while in a 

 liquid state into small bags, made of palm leaves, as in some of 

 the binequins considerable fragments of the palm leaves were still 

 adherent to the copal, and in all, casts of the leaves were left on the 

 soft surface of the gum before it solidified. The binequins which the 

 present-day Maya Indians manufacture as receptacles for their home- 

 made lime, though vastly larger, are precisely similar in shape, con- 

 struction, and appearance to those their ancestors used as recep- 

 tacles for copal. The entrance to the large cave was near the sum- 

 mit of the chff and so difficult to reach that it can never have been 

 long used as a place of residence, though it would form an exceed- 

 ingly strong position to hold against an attack from without, as it 

 is necessary to cross a fallen tree trunk in order to enter, and this 

 might easily be hauled back into the cave or^ pushed away from 

 its mouth, leaving it practically inaccessible. Nothing was found 

 in the cave except a large quantity of bats' excrement and of 

 rough red potslierds. 



