omplished an enormous deal, and from being so much
better provided with the comforts of living than at any former time
while exploring ruins, he had continued in good health and spirits.

At dark the Indian arrived with my luggage, sweating at every pore,
having carried it twenty-one miles, for which I paid him three
shillings and sixpence. As he was going away we gave him a roll of
bread, and he asked by signs if he was to carry it to the cura. Being
made to comprehend that he was to eat it himself, he sat down and
commenced immediately, having probably never eaten so much bread before
in his life. We then gave him half a cup of Habanero, some plantains
and a cigar, and, as the dew was heavy, told him to sit by the fire.
When he had finished these we repeated the portion, and he seemed
hardly to believe his good fortune real, but he had an idea that he was
well off, and either from being a stranger, and free from the
apprehensions felt by the Indians of Uxmal, or else from a fancy he had
taken to us, he asked for a costal, a piece of hemp bagging, to sleep
upon. We gave him one, and he lay down by the fire; for a while he
endeavoured to protect his naked body against the moschetoes, and kept
up a continued slapping, lighter or heavier according to the
aggravation, changed his position, and tried the back corridor, but it
was all in vain; and, finally, with a sad attempt at a smile, he asked
for another drink of Habanero and a cigar, and went away.

On the twenty-fourth of December Doctor Cabot returned from Ticul,
bringing back with him Albino, who was still in a rueful plight.
Unfortunately, the cura Carillo was unwell, and unable to accompany
him, but had promised to follow in a few days. On Christmas eve we were
all once more together, and Christmas Day, in spite of ourselves, was a
holyday. No Indians came out to work. Chaipa Chi, who had moved
regularly as the sun, for the first time failed. We had, however, as
visiters, a number of women from the village of Moona. From the top of
the House of the Dwarf we saw them moving toward that of the Nuns, and
went down to receive them. The only males who accompanied them were a
lad about fourteen attending his newly-married wife, and the husband of
the woman I had seen buried, who either had not the spirit for joining
in the festivities at the hacienda, or was putting himself in the way
of repairing his loss.

Unable to do anything at the ruins, I walked down to the haci