108 INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. • 



that if it had been a recent affection, it would be more 

 within the reach of art ; but, as it was a case of old 

 standing, it required time, skill, watching of symptoms, 

 and the effect of medicine from day to day ; and, for 

 the present, I advised her to take her feet out of a pud- 

 dle of water in which she was standing, and promised 

 to consult Mr. Catherwood, who was even a better 

 medico than I, and to send her a liniment with which 

 to bathe her neck. 



This over, Don Jose Maria accompanied me to the 

 ruins, where I found Mr. Catherwood with the Indian 

 workmen. Again we wandered over the whole ground 

 in search of some ruined building in which we could 

 take up our abode, but there was none. To hang up 

 our hammocks under the trees was madness ; the 

 branches were still wet, the ground muddy, and again 

 there was a prospect of early rain ; but we were deter- 

 mined not to go back to Don Gregorio's. Don Mari- 

 ano said that there was a hut near by, and conducted 

 me to it. As we approached, we heard the screams of a 

 woman inside, and, entering, saw her rolling and toss- 

 ing on a buU's-hide bed, wild with fever and pain ; and, 

 starting to her knees at the sight of me, with her hands 

 pressed against her temples, and tears bursting from 

 her eyes, she begged me, for the love of God, to give 

 her some remedios. Her skin was hot, her pulse very 

 high ; she had a violent intermitting fever. While in- 

 quiring into her symptoms, her husband entered the hut, 

 a white man, about forty, dressed in a pair of dirty cot- 

 ton drawers, with a nether garment hanging outside, a 

 handkerchief tied around his head, and barefooted ; and 

 his name was Don Miguel. I told him that we wished to 

 pass a few days among the ruins, and asked permission 

 to stop at his hut. The woman, most happy at having 



