three stories presented a perpendicular wall, and as they neared it an
entrance, or doorway, high enough for a man and wide enough for four
abreast appeared in the vertical front. It led them through a dark
passage into an interior court which was fairly clean and contained
three estufas. Its diameter did not exceed one hundred and fifty feet.

Toward this court, or yard, the stories of the building descended in
terraces also; but though everywhere beams leaned up as ladders, access
to the ground-floor was also afforded by narrow doorways closed with
hides or mats. It was hot and quiet in this yard; the sun shed glaring
light into it and over the roofs. Naked urchins played and squirmed
below, whereas above, an old woman or some aged man would cower
motionless, shading their blear eyes with one hand and warming their
cold frames in the heat. Okoya went directly to one of the ground-floor
openings, lifted the deerskin that hung over it, and called out the
usual greeting,--

"Guatzena!"

"Opona,--'come in,'" responded a woman's voice. Both lads obeyed the
summons. At first the room seemed dark on account of the sudden contrast
with the glare outside, but as soon as this first impression was
overcome, it appeared moderately lighted. It was a chamber about
fourteen feet long and ten feet wide, and its walls were whitewashed
with burnt gypsum. Deer-hides and a mat plaited of yucca-leaves lay
rolled up in one corner. A niche contained a small earthen bowl, painted
white with black symbolic figures. A doorway to the right led into
another compartment which seemed darker than the first. As soon as the
boys entered the room, a woman appeared in this side doorway. She was
small, slender, and apparently thirty-five years of age. Her features,
notwithstanding the high cheek-bones, were attractive though wan and
thin. An air of physical suffering lay over them like a thin cloudy
veil. At the sight of this woman, Okoya's heart began to throb again;
for she it was whom he so direly suspected, nay, accused of treachery
and deceit. This woman was his mother.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: The word "umo" properly signifies "grandfather;" but it is
used indiscriminately for all ages and sexes in calling. An old man, for
instance, will call his grandchild "umo;" so will a wife her husband, a
brother his sister, etc.]

[Footnote 2: _Estufa_ properly means a stove, and the name was applied
to those semi-subterranean places by the Spaniards