ANCIENT PAINTING. 



261 



the murder was committed, and which, the Indians 

 say, is still standing. This tree I shall have occa- 

 sion to mention again hereafter. The painting had 

 evidently been executed by an Indian, and probably 

 very near the time of the occurrence which it was 

 intended to commemorate. Cogolludo refers to it 

 as an ancient and interesting relic in his time, and, 

 of course, it is much more so now. It is an object 

 of great reverence among the Indians of Mani. In 

 fact, throughout our whole journeyings, either in 

 Central America or Yucatan, it was the first and 

 only instance in which we met with any memorial 

 in the hands of the Indians, tending to keep alive 

 the memory of any event in their history ; but this 

 must not be imputed to them as a reproach. His- 

 tory, dark as it is on other points, shows clearly 

 enough that this now abject and degraded race did 

 chng with desperate and fatal tenacity to the mem- 

 ory of those ancestors whom they know not now; 

 the records of their conquerors show the ruthless 

 and savage policy pursued by the Spaniards to root 

 this memory from their minds ; and here, in this 

 very town of Mani, we have a dark and memorable 

 instance. 



In 1571, twenty-nine years after the foundation 

 of Merida, some Indians of Mani relapsed and be- 

 came idolaters, practising in secret their ancient 

 rites. 



Intelligence of their backsliding reached the ears 

 of the provincial in Merida, who came to Mani in 



