228 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



part of the dry season, and when this fails the wells 

 appear, and continue the supply until the rains come 

 on again. 



Leaving this^ we continued again upon a plain. 

 Albino had not come up w4th us, and passing through 

 one Indian rancho, we came to another, in which 

 were many paths, and we w^ere at a loss which to 

 take* The men were all away, and w^e were obli- 

 ged to chase the women into their very huts to 

 ask directions. At the last hut we cornered two, 

 who were weaving cotton, and came upon them with 

 our great effort in the Maya language, " Tush y am 

 be — " " Is this the way to — " adding Yakatzib, the 

 name of the rancho at which we were told there 

 w^ere ruins. We had acquired great facility in asking 

 this question, but if the answer went beyond " yes" 

 or " no," or an indication w^th the hand, as was the 

 case on this occasion, it was entirely beyond our at- 

 tainments. The women gave us a very long, and 

 probably a very civil answer, but we could not un- 

 derstand a word of it ; and finding it impossible to 

 bring them to monosyllables, we asked for a draught 

 of water and rode on. 



When we had gone some distance beyond the 

 rancho, it occurred to us that this might be Yakat- 

 zib itself, and we turned back. Before reaching 

 it, however, w^e turned off into a grove of large or- 

 ange trees at one side of the road, dismounted, and 

 tied our horses under the shade to wait for Albino. 

 The trees were loaded and the ground covered with 



