ENTRANCE TO THE WELL. 351 



Nohcacab, and on the west the ruined buildings of 

 Uxmal. 



Returning in the same direction, we entered a 

 thick grove, in which we dismounted and tied our 

 horses. It was the finest grove we had seen in the 

 country, and within it was a great circular cavity or 

 opening in the earth, twenty or thirty feet deep, with 

 trees and bushes growing out of the bottom and 

 sides, and rising above the level of the plain. It 

 was a wild-looking place, and had a fanciful, mys- 

 terious, and almost fearful appearance ; for while in 

 the grove all was close and sultry, and without a 

 breath of air, and every leaf was still, within this 

 cavity the branches and leaves were violently agi- 

 tated, as if shaken by an invisible hand. 



This cavity was the entrance to the poso, or well, 

 and its appearance was wild enough to bear out the 

 wildest accounts we had heard of it. We descend- 

 ed to the bottom. At one corner was a rude natu- 

 ral opening in a great mass of limestone rock, low 

 and narrow, through which rushed constantly a 

 powerful current of wind, agitating the branches 

 and leaves in the area without. This was the 

 mouth of the well, and on our first attempting to 

 enter it the rush of wind was so strong that it made 

 us fall back gasping for breath, confirming the ac- 

 counts we had heard in Nohcacab. Our Indians 

 had for torches long strips of the castor-oil plant, 

 which the wind only ignited more thoroughly, and 

 with these they led the way. It was one of the 



