RUINS OF YAKATZIB. 



229 



fruit, but the oranges were all of the sour kind. 

 We could not sit down under the trees, for the 

 ground was teeming with garrapatas, ants, and other 

 insects, and while standing we were obliged to switch 

 them off with our riding whips. Soon Albino came 

 thundering along on the trotter, and we learned that 

 we had really passed Yakatzib, as the women had 

 no doubt told us. While we were mounting to go 

 back, a boy passed on a miserable old horse, his bare 

 body perched between two water-kegs, with which 

 he was going to the aguada. For a medio he slip- 

 ped off, tied his horse to a bush, and ran before us as 

 our guide through the rancho, beyond which, turning 

 off to the right, we soon reached a ruined edifice. 



It was small, and the whole front was gone ; the 

 door had been ornamented with pillars, which had 

 fallen, and lay on the ground. The boy told us that 

 there were ruined mounds, but no other remains of 

 buildings. We turned back without dismounting, 

 and continued our journey. 



At two o'clock we reached the foot of a stony 

 sierra, or mountain range, toilsome and laborious for 

 the horses, but Mr. Catherwood remarked that his 

 pricked up his ears and trod lightly, as if just begin- 

 ning a journey. From the top of the same sierra we 

 saw at its foot, on the other side, the village of Be- 

 canchen, where, on arriving, we rode through the 

 plaza, and up to a large house, the front of which 

 was adorned with a large red painting of a major 

 domo on horseback, leading a bull into the ring. 

 II 20 



