we heard a loud,
unnatural noise at the door, and, going out, found rolling over the
pavement the Cerberus of the mansion, an old Indian miserably deformed,
with his legs drawn up, his back down, his neck and head thrust
forward, and his eyes starting from their sockets; he was entertaining
himself with an outrageous soliloquy in the Maya tongue, and at our
appearance he pitched his voice higher than before. Signs and threats
had no effect. Secure in his deformity, he seemed to feel a malicious
pleasure that he had it in his power to annoy us. We gave up, and while
he continued rolling out tremendous Maya, we fell asleep. So passed our
first night in Merida.

CHAPTER II.

Housekeeping.--Description of a Bull-ring.--A
Bull-fight.--Spectators.--Brutal Torments inflicted on the
Bulls.--Serious Accidents.--A noble Beast.--An exciting Scene.--Victims
to Bull-fighting.--Danger and Ferocity of Bull-fights.--Effects
on moral Character.--Grand Mass.--A grand Procession.--The
Alameda.--Calezas.--A Concert, and its Arrangements.--Fete of Todos
Santos.--A singular Custom.--An Incident.

Early the next morning the carreta arrived with our luggage, and, to
avoid the trouble of loading and unloading, we directed it to remain at
the door, and set out immediately to look for a house. We had not much
time, and, consequently, but little choice; but, with the help of Dona
Micaela, in half an hour we found one that answered our purpose. We
returned and started the carreta; an Indian followed, carrying on his
head a table, and on the top of it a washhand-basin; another with three
chairs, all Dona Micaela's, and we closed the procession.

Our house was in the street of the Flamingo. Like most of the houses in
Merida, it was built of stone, and had one story; the front was about
thirty feet and had a sala covering the whole, about twenty feet in
depth. The ceiling was perhaps eighteen feet high, and the walls had
wooden knobs for fastening hammocks. Behind the sala was a broad
corridor, opening on a courtyard, at one side of which was a
sleeping-room, and at the back of that a comeder or eating-room. The
floors were all of hard cement. The courtyard was about thirty feet
square, with high stone walls, and a well in the centre. Next, running
across the lot, was a kitchen, with a sleeping-room for servants, and
back of that another courtyard, forty feet deep, with stone walls
fifteen feet high; and in