VILLAGE OF TICUL. 



263 



its plaza and streets running at right angles, and was 

 distinguished among the villages of Yucatan for its 

 casas de piedra, or stone houses. These were on 

 the plaza and streets adjoining ; and back, extending 

 more than a mile each way, were the huts of the 

 Indians. These huts were generally plastered, en- 

 closed by stone fences, and imbowered among trees, 

 or, rather, overgrown and concealed by weeds. The 

 population was about five thousand, of which about 

 three hundred families were vecinos, or white peo- 

 ple, and the rest Indians. Fresh meat can be pro- 

 cured every day ; the tienda grande, or large store 

 of Guzman, would not disgrace Merida. The 

 bread is better than at the capital. Altogether, for 

 appearance, society, and conveniences of living, it 

 is perhaps the best village in Yucatan, and famous 

 for its bull-fights and the beauty of its Mestiza 

 women. 



The church and convent occupy the whole of 

 one side of the plaza. Both were built by the 

 Franciscan monks, and they are among the grandest 

 of those gigantic buildings with which that powerful 

 order marked its entrance into the country. They 

 stand on a stone platform about four feet high and 

 several hundred feet in front. The church was 

 large and sombre, and adorned with rude monu- 

 ments and figures calculated to inspire the Indians 

 with reverence and awe. In one place, in a niche 

 in the wall, was a funeral urn, painted black, with a 

 white streak around the top, which contains the 



