rty or fifty years
after the conquest, the Indians were abandoning their ancient usages
and customs, adopting the rites and ceremonies of the Catholic Church,
and having their children baptized with Spanish names.

CHAPTER XIII.

Another ruined City.--Relics.--Ruins of San Francisco.--Proved to
be those of the Aboriginal City of the name Ticul.--A beautiful
Vase.--Search for a Sepulchre.--Discovery of a Skeleton and Vase.--An
Indian Needle.--These Cities not built by Descendants of
Egyptians.--Their Antiquity not very great.--Examination of the
Skeleton by Doctor Morton, and his Opinion.--Mummies from Peru.--These
Cities built by the Ancestors of the present Race of Indians.--The
Seybo Tree.--The Campo Santo.--A quiet Village.

It was fortunate for the particular objects of our expedition that, go
where we would in this country, the monuments of its ancient
inhabitants were before our eyes. Near the village of Ticul, almost in
the suburbs, are the ruins of another ancient and unknown city. From
the time of our arrival the memorials of it had been staring us in the
face. The cura had some sculptured stones of new and exceedingly pretty
design; and heads, vases, and other relics, found in excavating the
ruins, were fixed in the fronts of houses as ornaments. My first stroll
with the cura was to these ruins.

At the end of a long street leading out beyond the campo santo we
turned to the right by a narrow path, overgrown with bushes covered
with wild flowers, and on which birds of beautiful plumage were
sitting, but so infested with garrapatas that we had to keep brushing
them off continually with the bough of a tree.

This path led us to the hacienda of San Francisco, the property of a
gentleman of the village, who had reared the walls of a large building,
but had never finished it. There were fine shade trees, and the
appearance of the place was rural and picturesque, but it was
unhealthy. The deep green foliage was impregnated with the seeds of
death. The proprietor never visited it except in the daytime, and the
Indians who worked on the milpas returned to the village at night.

A short distance in the rear of the hacienda were the ruins of another
city, desolate and overgrown, having no name except that of the
hacienda on which they stand. At this time a great part of the city was
completely hidden by the thick foliage of the trees. Near by, however,
several mounds were in f