CHRISTMAS DAY. 



295 



On the twenty-fourth of December Doctor Cabot 

 returned from Ticul, bringing back with him Albino, 

 who was still in a rueful plight. Unfortunately, the 

 cura Carillo was unwell, and unable to accompany 

 him, but had promised to follow in a few days. On 

 Christmas eve we were all once more together, and 

 Christmas Day, in spite of ourselves, was a holyday. 

 No Indians came out to work. Chaipa Chi, who had 

 moved regularly as the sun, for the first time failed. 

 We had, however, as visiters, a number of women 

 from the village of Moona. From the top of the 

 House of the Dwarf we saw them moving toward 

 that of the Nuns, and went down to receive them. 

 The only males who accompanied them were a lad 

 about fourteen attending his newly-married wife, 

 and the husband of the woman I had seen buried, 

 who either had not the spirit for joining in the fes- 

 tivities at the hacienda, or was putting himself in 

 the way of repairing his loss. 



Unable to do anything at the ruins, I walked down 

 to the hacienda to see one of our horses which had 

 a sore back. The hacienda was deserted, but the 

 sound of violins led me to the place where the In- 

 dians were congregated. Preparations were ma- 

 king on a large scale for the evening feast. The 

 place looked like a butcher's shambles, for they had 

 cut up what had once composed eight turkeys, two 

 hogs, and I do not know how many fowls. The 

 women were all busy ; Chaipa Chi was lady-patron- 

 ess, and up to her elbows in tortillas. 



