an ever-present and
active element of the poor Mexican's superstitious world.

As to buried treasure, it is a favourite subject of the _peon_ for
conversation. Quantities of silver money and other articles are
frequently found concealed throughout the country, where they were
often placed for safety in the turbulent times of former history. At
the time of the dispossession of the clergy it is probable that a good
deal of concealment of this nature was made, whether in lonely places
in the hills or plains, or in the floors and walls of convents and
houses.

It was with considerable difficulty that I persuaded my _peones_ on one
occasion to assist me in the examination of a cave which was said to
contain the remains of the dead. The cave had a corkscrew-like opening
from the surface of the hill, a barren limestone hog-back in the State
of Durango. It descended spirally for some 30 feet or more, as I found
when my men lowered me down with a rope, at my command. When my feet
touched bottom I lighted the candle, which had been put out in the
descent, and looked around. The place was of small extent--little more
than a pit--and it seemed to be a natural cavity, with nothing
remarkable about it. But I turned my attention to the floor, which felt
curiously soft and greasy to the touch. It was strewn with pieces of
human bones and skulls! The gruesome place weighed rather upon me, I
confess, silent and stifling as it was, but having come to explore I
proceeded to excavate lightly in the yielding material of the floor
with a light pick. The singular nature of this material aroused my
attention, and well it might, for I afterwards learned that there was a
legend to the effect that the pit had been the scene of a massacre, and
that numbers of persons alive and dead, had been thrown into it, and
the soft material was the decayed human remains! When this had taken
place no one knew, but it must have been at a very remote or
prehistoric period, for during my digging in the floor I unearthed a
flint spearhead, beautifully chipped and fashioned, lying by a skull it
had cloven. The spearhead, or blade, is some 6 inches in length and 4
inches in width, about a quarter of an inch thick, and I still preserve
it.

So, as we have seen, religion and superstition are much combined in the
mind of the Mexicans, the result of both ancient and modern creeds. As
to the antique beliefs and cult, there is much that appeals to the
philosopher in t