he top of the wall, was a
row of human skulls. Inside the enclosure, at the farthest extremis,
was a pile of skulls and bones, which, according to a custom of the
Indians observed from time immemorial, had been dug up from the graves
and thrown into this shallow pit, a grim and ghastly charnel-house.

The village consisted of a long, straight street, with houses or huts
almost hidden by foliage, and inhabited exclusively by Indians. We rode
up to the plaza without meeting a single person. At one side of the
plaza, on a high stone platform, stood a gigantic church, with two
lofty towers, and in front and on each side was a broad flight of stone
steps. Crossing the plaza we saw an Indian woman, to whom we uttered
the word _convento_, and, following the direction of her hand, rode up
to the house of the cura. It was in the rear of the church, and
enclosed by a large wall. The gate was closed, but we opened it without
knocking. The convent stood on the same platform with the church, and
had a high flight of stone steps. A number of Indian servants ran out
to the corridor, to stare at such strange-looking persons, and we
understood that the padre was not at home; but we were too well pleased
with the appearance of things to think of going elsewhere. We tied our
horses in the yard, ascended the steps, and strolled through the
corridor of the convent and along the platform of the church,
overlooking the village.

Before the door of the church lay the body of a child on a bier. There
was no coffin, but the body was wrapped in a tinsel dress of paper of
different colours, in which red and gold were predominant; and amid
this finery worms several inches long were issuing from its nostrils,
curling and twisting over its face: a piteous and revolting spectacle,
showing the miserable lot of the children of the poor in these Indian
villages.

In a few minutes the ministro, or assistant of the cura, joined us,
from whom we learned that the cura was preparing to bury this child,
and as soon as it was over, would come to receive us. In the mean time,
under his escort, we ascended to the top of the church.

The ascent was by a large stone staircase within one of the towers. The
top commanded a view of a great plain, covered by an almost boundless
forest, extending on one side to the sea, and on the other to the
sierra which crosses the peninsula of Yucatan, and runs back to the
great traversing range in Guatimala, broken only by a h