ANOTHER RUINED CITY. 



271 



CHAPTER XIIL 



Another ruined City, — Relics. — Ruins of San Francisco. — Proved 

 to be those of the Aboriginal City of the name Ticul. — A beau- 

 tiful Vase. — Search for a Sepulchre. — Discovery of a Skeleton 

 and Vase. — An Indian Needle. — These Cities not built by De- 

 scendants of Egyptians. — Their Antiquity not very great. — Ex- 

 amination of the Skeleton by Doctor Morton, and his Opinion. 

 — Mummies from Peru. — These Cities built by the Ancestors 

 of the present Race of Indians. — The Seybo Tree. — The Campo 

 Santo. — A quiet Village. 



It was fortunate for the particular objects of our 

 expedition that, go where we would in this country, 

 the monuments of its ancient inhabitants were be- 

 fore our ey^^s. Near the village of Ticul, almost in 

 the suburbs, are the ruins of another ancient and 

 unknown city. From the time of our arrival the 

 memorials of it had been staring us in the face. 

 The cura had some sculptured stones of new and 

 exceedingly pretty design ; and heads, vases, and 

 other relics, found in excavating the ruins, were 

 fixed in the fronts of houses as ornaments. My first 

 stroll with the cura was to these ruins. 



At the end of a long street leading out beyond 

 the campo santo we turned to the right by a nar- 

 row path, overgrown with bushes covered with wild 

 flowers, and on which birds of beautiful plumage 



