distract the family, and keep them from going to sleep. At
twelve o'clock chocolate is served round, and again at daybreak; but in
some respects the ceremony is different in the case of grown persons
and that of children. In the latter, as they believe that a child is
without sin, and that God takes it immediately to himself the death is
a subject of rejoicing, and the night is passed in card-playing,
jesting, and story-telling. But in the case of grown persons, as they
are not so sure what becomes of the spirit, they have no jesting or
story-telling, and only play cards. All this may seem unfeeling, but we
must not judge others by rules known only to ourselves. Whatever the
ways of hiding or expressing it, the stream of natural affection runs
deep in every bosom.

The mother of the child shed no tears, but as she stood by its head,
stanching its wounds from time to time, she did not seem to be
rejoicing over its death. The padrecito told us that she was poor, but
a very respectable woman. We inquired about the other members of her
family, and especially her husband. The padrecito said she had none,
nor was she a widow; and, unfortunately for his standard of
respectability, when we asked who was the father of the child, he
answered laughingly, "Quien sabe?" "Who knows?" At ten o'clock he
lighted a long bundle of sticks at one of the candles burning at the
head of the child, and we went away.

CHAPTER XVI.

Ruins of Nohpat.--A lofty Mound.--Grand View.--Sculptured Human
Figure.--Terraces.--Huge sculptured Figure.--Other Figures.--Skull and
Cross-bones.--Situation of Ruins.--Journey to Kabah.--Thatched
Huts.--Arrival at the Ruins.--Return to the Village.--Astonishment
of the Indians.--Valuable Servant.--Festival of Corpus Alma.--A
plurality of Saints.--How to put a Saint under Patronage.--A
Procession.--Fireworks.--A Ball.--Excess of Female Population.--A
Dance.

[Engraving 32: Mound at Nohpat]

The next day we set out for another ruined city. It lay on the road to
Uxmal, and was the same which I had visited on my first return from
Ticul, known by the name of Nohpat. At the distance of a league we
turned off from the main road to the left, and, following a narrow
milpa path, in fifteen minutes reached the field of ruins. One mound
rose high above the rest, holding aloft a ruined building, as shown in
the preceding engraving. At the foot of this we dismounted and tied our
horses.