64 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



and, tying our horses, descended by a great chasm 

 to the depth of perhaps two hundred feet, when we 

 found ourselves under a great shelf of overhanging 

 rock, the cavern being dark as we advanced, but all 

 at once lighted up from beyond by a perpendicular 

 orifice, and exhibiting in the background magnifi- 

 cent stalactites, picturesque blocks and fragments of 

 rock, which, in the shadows of the bacl^round, as- 

 sumed all manner of fantastic shapes, and, from their 

 fancied resemblance, had been called the figures of 

 men and animals, pillars and chapels. I saw at 

 once that there was another disappointment for me ; 

 there were no monuments of art, and had never been 

 anything artificial ; but the cave itself, being large 

 and open, and lighted in several places by orifices 

 above, was so magnificent that, notwithstanding the 

 labour and disappointment, I did not regret my visit. 

 I passed two hours in wandering through it, re- 

 turned to the hacienda to dine, and it was after 

 dark when I reached the rancho, and for the last 

 time had the benefit of its well in the shape of a 

 warm bath. Throughout Yucatan, every Indian, 

 however poor, has, as part of the furniture of his hut, 

 a bano, or sort of bathing-tub ; and, next to ma- 

 king tortillas, the great use of a wife is to have warm 

 water ready for him when he returns from his work. 

 We had not the latter convenience, but at this place, 

 for a medio, we had the alcalde's bano every even- 

 ing. It was a wooden dug-out, flat bottomed, about 

 three feet long, eighteen inches wide, three or four 



