236 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



vaquero led the way up it on horseback, and we fol- 

 lowed, dismounting at the top. On this terrace was 

 a circular hole like those before referred to at Ux- 

 mal and other places, but much larger ; and, looking 

 down into it till my eyes became accustomed to the 

 darkness, I saw a large chamber with three recesses 

 in different parts of the wall, which the major domo 

 said were doors opening to passages that went un- 

 der ground to an extent entirely unknown. By 

 means of a pole with a crotch I descended, and 

 found the chamber of an oblong form. The doors, 

 as the major domo called them, were merely recesses 

 about two feet deep. Touching one of them with 

 my feet, I told him that the end of his passage was 

 there, but he said it was tapado, or closed up, and 

 persisted in asserting that it led to an indefinite ex- 

 tent. It was difficult to say what these recesses 

 were intended for. They threw a mystery around 

 the character of these subterranean chambers, and 

 unsettled the idea of their being all intended for 

 wells. 



Beyond this, on a higher terrace, among many re- 

 mains, were two buildings, one of which was in a 

 good state of preservation, and the exterior was orna- 

 mented all around with pillars set in the wall, some- 

 what different from those in the facades of other build- 

 ings, and more fanciful. The interior consisted of but 

 a single apartment, fifteen feet long and nine feet wide. 

 The ceiling was high, and in the layer of flat stones 

 along the centre of the arch was a single stone, like 



