of whites and those in whose veins white blood ran, while
outside, leaning upon the railing, looking in, but not presuming to
enter, were close files of Indians, and beyond, in the plaza, was a
dense mass of them--natives of the land and lords of the soil, that
strange people in whose ruined cities I had just been wandering,
submitting quietly to the dominion of strangers, bound down and trained
to the most abject submission, and looking up to the white man as a
superior being. Could these be the descendants of that fierce people
who had made such bloody resistance to the Spanish conquerors?

At eleven o'clock the ball broke up and fireworks were let off from the
balustrade of the church. These ended with the national piece of El
Castillo, and at twelve o'clock, when we went away, the plaza was as
full of Indians as at midday. At no time since my arrival in the
country had I been so struck with the peculiar constitution of things
in Yucatan. Originally portioned out as slaves, the Indians remain as
servants. Veneration for masters is the first lesson they learn, and
these masters, the descendants of the terrible conquerors, in centuries
of uninterrupted peace have lost all the fierceness of their ancestors.
Gentle, and averse to labour themselves, they impose no heavy burdens
upon the Indians, but understand and humour their ways, and the two
races move on harmoniously together, with nothing to apprehend from
each other, forming a simple, primitive, and almost patriarchal state
of society; and so strong is the sense of personal security, that,
notwithstanding the crowds of strangers, and although every day Don
Simon had sat with doors open and piles of money on the table, so
little apprehension was there of robbery, that we slept without a door
or window locked.

CHAPTER X.

Sunday.--Mass.--A grand Procession.--Intoxicated Indians.--Set out for
Mazcanu.--A Caricoche.--Scenery.--Arrival at Maxcanu.--Care of
Mazcanu.--Threading a Labyrinth.--An Alarm.--An abrupt
Termination.--Important Discovery.--Labyrinth not subterraneous.--More
Mounds.--Journey continued.--Grand View.--Another Mound.--An
Accident.--Village of Opocheque.--View from the Sierra.--More
Ruins.--Return to Uxmal.--Change of Quarters.--An Addition to the
Household.--Beautiful Scene.

The next day was Sunday. The church was thronged for grand mass;
candles were burned, and offerings were made to the amount of many
m