238 INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



Don Simon had breakfast ready for us, but we 

 found some deficiencies. The haciendas of that 

 country never have any surplus furniture, being only 

 visited by the master once or twice a year, and then 

 only for a few days, when he brings with him what- 

 ever he requires for his personal comfort. Uxmal 

 was like the rest, and at that moment it was worse 

 off, for we had stripped it of almost every movable to 

 enlarge our accommodations at the ruins. Our great- 

 est difficulty was about seats. All contrived to be 

 provided for, however, except Don Simon, who 

 finally, as it was an extreme case, went into the 

 church and brought out the great confessional chair. 



Breakfast over, the doctor's patient was brought 

 forward. He was not consulted on the subject of 

 the operation, and had no wish of his own about it, 

 but did as his master ordered him. At the moment 

 of beginning, Doctor Cabot asked for a bed. He had 

 not thought of asking for it before, supposing it 

 would be ready at a moment's notice ; but he might 

 almost as well have asked for a steamboat or a 

 locomotive engine. Who ever thought of wanting 

 a bed at Uxmal? was the general feeling of the In- 

 dians. They were all born in hammocks, and 

 expected to die in them, and who wanted a bed 

 when he could get a hammock 1 A bed, however 

 (which means a bedstead), was indispensable, and 

 the Indians dispersed in search, returning, after a 

 long absence, with tidings that they had heard of 

 one on the hacienda, but it had been taken apart, 



