VILLAGE OF TEKOH. 



123 



dollar would be in ours ; and as he interpreted to 

 his nearly naked companions, crouching in the 

 shade, nothing touched them so nearly as the idea 

 of cold and frost, and spending a great portion of 

 the day's earnings for fuel to keep from freezing. 



At three o'clock we left the hamlet, and at a lit- 

 tle after four we saw the towers of the church of 

 Tekoh. In the suburbs of this village we passed 

 the campo santo, a large enclosure with high stone 

 walls ; over the gateway of which, and in niches 

 along the top of the wall, was a row of human 

 skulls. Inside the enclosure, at the farthest extrem- 

 ity, was a pile of skulls and bones, which, according 

 to a custom of the Indians observed from time im- 

 memorial, had been dug up from the graves and 

 thrown into this shallow pit, a grim and ghastly 

 charnel-house. 



The village consisted of a long, straight street, 

 with houses or huts almost hidden by foliage, and 

 inhabited exclusively by Indians. We rode up to 

 the plaza without meeting a single person. At one 

 side of the plaza, on a high stone platform, stood a 

 gigantic church, with two lofty towers, and in front 

 and on each side was a broad flight of stone steps. 

 Crossing the plaza we saw an Indian woman, to 

 whom we uttered the word convento, and, follow- 

 ing the direction of her hand, rode up to the house 

 of the cura. It was in the rear of the church, and 

 enclosed by a large wall. The gate was closed, but 

 we opened it without knocking. The convent 



