122 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



the reader to consult the map. On setting out our 

 direction was again south, and again our road was 

 over the sepulchres of cities. At the distance of 

 two miles we saw " old walls" on an eminence at 

 the right ; a httle farther three ruined buildings on 

 the same side of the road; and beyond these we came 

 to the ruins of Sacbey. These consist of three build- 

 ings, irregularly disposed, one of which is represent- 

 ed in the engraving opposite. It faces the south, 

 measures fifty-three feet front by twelve feet six 

 inches deep, and has three small doorways. An- 

 other, a little farther south, is about the size of the 

 former, and has three apartments, with two columns 

 in the centre doorway. The third is so ruined that 

 its plan could not be made out. 



Near as they were to the village, the padrecito 

 had never seen them. They stand about a hundred 

 feet from the path, but so completely buried among 

 the trees, that, though I had visited them before un- 

 der the guidance of an Indian, I passed now without 

 observing them. 



A short distance beyond is one of the most in- 

 teresting monuments of antiquity in Yucatan. It is 

 a broken platform or roadway of stone, about eight 

 feet wide and eight or ten inches high, crossing the 

 road, and running off into the woods on both sides. 

 I have before referred to it as called by the Indians 

 Sacbey, which means, in the Maya language, a paved 

 way of pure white stone. The Indians say it trav-_ 

 ersed the country from Kabah to Uxmal ; and that 



