A RAMON TREE. 



69 



solid mass of masonry. The discovery of this 

 chamber brought to Hght a new feature in the con- 

 struction of these buildings. Whether the other 

 roofs, or any of them, contained chambers, it is im- 

 possible to say. Not suspecting anything of the 

 kind, we had made no search for them, and they 

 may exist, but with the holes covered up and hid- 

 den by the growth and decay of vegetation. Here- 

 tofore I had inclined to the opinion that the subter- 

 raneous chambers I had met with were intended for 

 cisterns or reservoirs of water. The position of this 

 in. the roof of a building seemed adverse to such an 

 idea, as, in case of a breach, the water might find 

 its way into the apartment below. 



At the foot of the terrace was a tree, hiding part 

 of the building. Though holding trees in some de- 

 gree of reverence, around these ruined cities it was 

 a great satisfaction to hear them fall. This one 

 was a noble ramon, which I had ordered to be cut 

 down, and being engaged in another direction, I re- 

 turned, and found that the Indians had not done so, 

 and they said it was so hard that it would break 

 their axes. These little axes seemed hardly capa- 

 ble of making any impression upon the trunk, and 

 I gave them directions, perhaps still more barbarous, 

 to cut away the branches and leave the trunk. They 

 hesitated, and one of them said, in a deprecating 

 tone, that this tree served as food for horses and 

 cattle, and their mistress had always charged them 

 not to cut down such. The poor fellow seemed 



