nods towards the _pita_ plant; "have a care of your heads,
_hijos mios_! Look out for this queer customer on the left, or you may
get your soft cheeks scratched a bit."

On delivering the admonition he ducks his own head, and passing under
the thorny leaves of the _agave_, commences the ascent of the hill.

Cypriano and Ludwig do likewise; and all three are soon climbing the
steep, one behind the other, now in silence, the only sounds heard being
the hoof-strokes of the horses, with their hard breathing as they strain
up the acclivity.

A quarter of an hour's tough climbing carries them up the wooded slope,
and out upon the open summit, where they have a spectacle before their
eyes peculiar, as it is original. As already said, the hill is
table-topped, and being also dome-shaped the level surface is circular,
having a diameter of some three or four hundred yards. Nothing strange
in this, however, since hills of the kind, termed _mesas_, are common
throughout most parts of Spanish America, and not rare in the Gran
Chaco. All three are familiar with such eminences. But what they are
not familiar with--and indeed none of them have ever seen before--are
some scores of queer-looking structures standing all over the summit,
with alley-like spaces between! Scaffolds they appear, each having two
stages, one above the other, such as might be used in the erection of a
two-storey house!

And scaffolds they are, though not employed in any building purposes;
instead, for that of burial. They are the tombs on which are deposited
the bodies of the Tovas dead; or those of them that during life were
dignitaries in the tribe.

On this elevated cemetery the moon is shining brightly, though
obliquely, throwing the shadows of the scaffolds aslant, so that each
has its counterpart on the smooth turf by its side, dark as itself, but
magnified in the moonlight. Gaspar and his companions can see that
these singular mausoleums are altogether constructed of timber, the
supporting posts being trunks of the _Cocoyol_ palm, the lower staging
of strong canes, the _cana brava_, laid side by side, while the upper
one, or roof, is a thatch of the leaves of another species of palm--the
_cuberta_.

After contemplating them for an instant, Gaspar says: "This is the
burying-ground Naraguana spoke to me about, beyond a doubt. And not
such a bad sort of place either to take one's final rest in, after
life's worries are over. I shouldn't much