ting over the ruins of Uxmal. I can only say of them that they lie
on the common lands of the village of Nohcacab. Perhaps they have been
known to the Indians from time immemorial; but, as the padrecito told
us, until the opening of the camino real to Bolonchen they were utterly
unknown to the white inhabitants. This road passed through the ancient
city, and discovered the great buildings, overgrown, in some places
towering above the tops of the trees. The discovery, however, created
not the slightest sensation; the intelligence of it had never reached
the capital; and though, ever since the discovery, the great edifices
were visible to all who passed along the road, not a white man in the
village had ever turned aside to look at them, except the padrecito,
who, on the first day of our visit, rode in, but without dismounting,
in order to make a report to us. The Indians say of them, as of all the
other ruins, that they are the works of the antiguos; but the
traditionary character of the city is that of a great place, superior
to the other Xlap-pahk scattered over the country, coequal and
coexistent with Uxmal; and there is a tradition of a great paved way,
made of pure white stone, called in the Maya language Sacbe, leading
from Kabah to Uxmal, on which the lords of those places sent messengers
to and fro, bearing letters written on the leaves and bark of trees.

At the time of my attack, Mr. Catherwood, Doctor Cabot, and Albino were
all down with fever. I had a recurrence the next day, but on the third
I was able to move about. The spectacle around was gloomy for sick men.
From the long continuance of the rainy season our rooms in the convent
were damp, and corn which we kept in one corner for the horses had
swelled and sprouted.

[Engraving 49: Charnel House and Convent]

Death was all around us. Anciently this country was so healthy that
Torquemada says, "Men die of pure old age, for there are none of those
infirmities that exist in other lands; and if there are slight
infirmities, the heat destroys them, and so there is no need of a
physician there;" but the times are much better for physicians now, and
Doctor Cabot, if he had been able to attend to it, might have entered
into an extensive gratuitous practice. Adjoining the front of the
church, and connecting with the convent, was a great charnel-house,
along the wall of which was a row of skulls. At the top of a pillar
forming the abutment of the wall of the stai