•SAPPEHj INDEPENDENT INDIAN STATES OF YUCATAN 631 



meet in a popular assembly on the day after my departure, March 1, 

 1894. If I had not come to Icaiche as an official of the Mexican 

 Government, I should in all probability have been refused permission 

 to pass through this territory. 



The general of the Santa Cruz Indians has, as I gather from my 

 inquiries, the same authority as the chiefs of the Ixkanha and Icaiche 

 Indians. On the whole, the conditions in the three independent 

 Maya states are almost identical. 



Among the independent Mayas military service is compulsory; 

 every man capable of bearing arms is obliged to perform militarj'^ 

 duty and is drafted for sentinel duty. The firearms in use are quite 

 miscellaneous; modern repeating rifles are seen side by side with 

 heavy old-fashioned muzzle-loading muskets. In general, the inde- 

 pendent Mayas are considered good shots and courageous, efficient 

 soldiers, skilled in the strategems of war. The Mayas who accom- 

 panied me as guides through the interior of Yucatan always carried 

 their shotguns on their shoulders, loaded and cocked, Avith percussion 

 cap on, and usually with great promptness brought down the game 

 which crossed our path. 



The administration of justice is prompt and nummary, but it is, I 

 believe, very conscientious, in favorable contrast to the dragging, 

 uncertain methods of Mexican courts. The accused is either set free 

 or flogged or, in serious cases, among which, as I was assured, rape is 

 reckoned^ he is shot. There are no prisons and no punishment by 

 imj^risonment. 



The existing laAvs are strictly enforced. I myself experienced a 

 slight proof of this, manifested in a logical, though somewhat petty, 

 decision of the authorities. I had obtained in Icaiche three Mayas as 

 guides and interpreters and had made a legal contract with them 

 before the clerk of Icaiche, according to which they were to accom- 

 pany me to Ixkanha, receiving in advance half of the pay agreed 

 upon, the rest to be paid at Ixkanha. When we reached Ixkanha, the 

 three Icaiche men voluntarily proposed that for a certain sum they 

 should accompany me still farther to the railroad station, and that I 

 should there pay them the whole amount. To this arrangement I 

 agreed. The Indians of Icaiche and Ixkanha are compelled to have 

 passports, and therefore my Icaiche men could not journey farther 

 without the express permission of the Ixkanha authorities. As 

 General Arana was absent, my guides had to transact their business 

 with the commandant, the contract I have mentioned serving to prove 

 their identity. After a while I was also summoned, and the com- 

 mandant informed me through his interpreter that I had not fulfilled 

 the contract, since the Icaiche Indians had not yet been paid. Al- 

 though they did not in the 'least wish it, I nevertheless hastened to 

 pay them, Avhile the commandant looked on attentively. He then 



