204 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



spoke Spanish. The latter was an intelligent, mid- 

 dle-aged man, of highly respectable appearance, but 

 Don Simon told me he was the worst fellow on the 

 hacienda. He was desperately in love with a girl 

 who did not live on the estate, and he was in the 

 habit of running away to visit her, and of being 

 brought back with his arms tied behind him ; as a 

 punishment for a late offence of this kind, he had 

 been prohibited from going to the fiesta. Through 

 him I had an understanding with my new guide, 

 and set out again. 



In five minutes after leaving the hacienda, we 

 passed between two mounds of ruins, and, from time 

 to time having glimpses of other vestiges in the 

 woods, in twenty minutes we came to a mound 

 about thirty feet high, on the top of which was a 

 ruined building. Here we dismounted, tied our 

 horses, and ascended the mound. The whole of 

 the front wall had fallen, together with the front 

 half of the arch ; the interior chamber was filled 

 with dirt and rubbish nearly up to the cornice, and 

 the arch of the back wall was the only part above 

 ground ; but this, instead of being of smooth stones, 

 like all the others we had seen in Yucatan, was 

 plastered and covered with paintings, the colours of 

 which were still bright and fresh. The principal 

 colours were red, green, yellow, and blue, and at 

 first the lines and figures seemed so distinct, that I 

 thought I could make out the subjects. The apart- 

 ment being filled up with dirt, I stood above the 



