VISIT TO A CAVE. 



63 



Besides this there was a great cave, of w^hich I 

 had heard in Merida from the owner, who said he 

 had never visited it, but wished me to do so, and he 

 would read my description of it. The major domo 

 was an intelhgent Mestizo, who had been at the 

 cave, and confirmed all the accounts I had heard of 

 it, of sculptured figures of men and animals, pillars, 

 and a chap% of rock under the earth. He furnish- 

 ed me with a vaquero as a guide and a relief horse, 

 and, setting out, a short distance from the hacien- 

 da we turned into a tree-encumbered path, so diffi- 

 cult to pass through that, before we had gone far, it 

 seemed quite reasonable in the owner to content 

 himself with reading our description of the cave, 

 without taking the trouble to see it for himself. 

 The vaquero was encased in the equipments with 

 which that class ride into the woods after cattle. 

 His dress was a small, hard, heavy straw hat, cotton 

 shirt, drawers, and sandals ; over his body a thick 

 jacket, or overall, made of tanned cowhide, with the 

 sleeves reaching below his hands, and standing out 

 as if made of wood ; his saddle had large leather 

 flaps, which folded back and protected his naked 

 legs, and leather stirrup flaps to protect his feet. 

 Where he dashed through the bushes and briers un- 

 harmed, my thin blues got caught and torn ; but he 

 knew what garrapatas were, and said with empha- 

 sis, " Estos chicos son inuy Demonios." " Those 

 little ones are the very d — 1." 



At the distance of a league we reached the cave^ 



