WHIPPING-POSTS. 



169 



a dreadful scream, he jerked his feet out of the ropes, 

 and seemed to fly up to the top of the post. He 

 was brought back and secured, and whipped till the 

 alcalde was satisfied. This was one of the reforms in- 

 stituted by the Central government of Guatimala. The 

 Liberal party had abolished this remnant of barbarity ; 

 but within the last month, at the wish of the Indians 

 themselves, and in pursuance of the general plan to re- 

 store old usages and customs, new whipping-posts had 

 been erected in all the villages. Not one of the brutal 

 beings around seemed to have the least feeling for the 

 victims. Among the amateurs were several criminals, 

 whom we had noticed walking in chains about the plaza, 

 and among them a man and woman in rags, bareheaded, 

 with long hair streaming over their eyes, chained togeth- 

 er by the hand and foot, with strong bars between them 

 to keep them out of each other's reach. They were a 

 husband and wife, who had shocked the moral sense of 

 the community by not living together. The punishment 

 seemed the very refinement of cruelty, but while it last- 

 ed it was an effectual way of preventing a repetition of 

 the offence. 



At half past three, with an alguazil running before 

 us and Bobon trotting behind, we set out again, and 

 crossed a gently-rolling plain, with a distant side-hill 

 on the left, handsomely wooded, and reminding us of 

 scenes at home, except that on the left was another 

 immense barranca, with large trees, whose tops were 

 two thousand feet below us. Leaving a village on 

 the right, we passed a small lake, crossed a ravine, 

 and rose to the plain of Quiche. At a distance on 

 the left were the ruins of the old city, the once large 

 and opulent capital of Utatlan, the court of the native ^ 



Vol. IL— Y 15 



