just out,
were wiping their sweating bodies. At one moment an Indian disappeared,
and at the next another rose up out of the earth. We noticed that there
were no women, who, throughout Yucatan, are the drawers of water, and
always seen around a well, but we were told that no woman ever enters
the well of Chack; all the water for the rancho was procured by the
men, which alone indicated that the well was of an extraordinary
character. We had brought with us a ball of twine, and made immediate
preparations to descend, reducing our dress as near as possible to that
of the Indians.

Our first movement was down a hole by a perpendicular ladder, at the
foot of which we were fairly entered into a great cavern. Our guides
preceded us with bundles of taje lighted for torches, and we came to a
second descent almost perpendicular, which we achieved by a ladder laid
flat against the rock. Beyond this we moved on a short distance, still
following our guides, and still descending, when we saw their torches
disappearing, and reached a wild hole, which also we descended by a
long rough ladder. At the foot of this the rock was damp and slippery,
and there was barely room enough to pass around it, and get upon
another ladder down the same hole, now more contracted, and so small
that, with the arms akimbo, the elbows almost touched on each side. At
this time our Indians were out of sight; and in total darkness, feeling
our way by the rounds of the ladder, we cried out to them, and were
answered by distant voices directly underneath. Looking down, we saw
their torches like moving balls of fire, apparently at an interminable
distance below us.

At the foot of this ladder there was a rude platform as a
resting-place, made to enable those ascending and descending to pass
each other. A group of naked Indians, panting and sweating under the
load of their calabashes, were waiting till we vacated the ladder
above; and even in this wild hole, with loads on their backs, straps
binding their foreheads, and panting from fatigue and heat, they held
down their torches, and rendered obeisance to the blood of the white
man. Descending the next ladder, both above and below us were torches
gleaming in the darkness. We had still another ladder to descend, and
the whole perpendicular depth of this hole was perhaps two hundred
feet.

From the foot of this ladder there was an opening to the right, and
from it we soon entered a low, narrow passage, through