90 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



plore them, and I saw that it would consume more 

 time than I should be able to devote to it. 



Besides the inscription on the stone, the only in- 

 formation that exists in regard to this building is a 

 statement in Cogolludo, that the fagade cost fourteen 

 thousand dollars. It is now the property of Don 

 Simon Peon, and is occupied by his family. It has 

 been lately repaired, and some of the beams are no 

 doubt the same which held up the roof over the ade- 

 lantado. 



Eight streets lead from the plaza, two in the direc- 

 tion of each cardinal point. In every street, at the 

 distance of a few squares, is a gate, now dismantled, 

 and beyond are the barrios, or suburbs. 



The streets are distinguished in a manner pecu- 

 liar to Yucatan. In the angle of the corner house, 

 and on the top, stands a painted wooden figure of an 

 elephant, a bull, a flamingo, or some other visible ob- 

 ject, and the street is called by the name of this ob- 

 ject. On one corner there is the figure of an old 

 woman with large spectacles on her nose, and the 

 street is called la Calle de la Vieja, or the Street of 

 the Old Woman. That in which we lived had on 

 the corner house a flamingo, and was called the Street 

 of the Flamingo ; and the reason of the streets being 

 named in this way gives some idea of the character 

 of the people. The great mass of the inhabitants, 

 universally the Indians, cannot read. Printed signs 

 would be of no use, but every Indian knows the sign 

 of an elephant, a bull, or a flamingo. 



