f the slightest form of government."

"You may be certain that I shall study about it with more interest in
case we are so fortunate as to be able to go to school again," Teddy
replied. "Tell us about the people who lived here when it was so great."

"I wish I could," Cummings said with a sigh. "If it had been possible
for us to have taken from the Silver City any records, or sculptured
figures, or plates of a historical nature, I might have succeeded in
solving that which the student can speak of only as a mystery. Before
the Conquest it was known as Maya--that is to say, the territory now
called Yucatan, and the Chan Santa Cruz yet speak the Maya language. It
is only certain that for many centuries there was here an important
feudal monarchy, which doubtless arose after the Toltec overthrow of the
very ancient kingdom of Xibalba."

"Cortez was the first white man to come into this country," Neal said
half questioningly.

"Not by any manner of means. In the year 1502 Ferdinand Columbus, driven
by adverse currents out of his southerly course, sighted a group of
islands off Honduras, and captured a huge canoe, which is described as
having been as wide as a galley and eighty feet long, formed of the
trunk of a single tree. In the middle was an awning of palm leaves, not
unlike those of Venetian gondolas, under which were the women, children
and goods. The canoe was propelled by twenty-five Indians who wore
cotton coverlets and tunics without sleeves, dyed various colors and
curiously worked. The women wrapped themselves in large mantles of
similar material.

"The men wore long swords, with channels each side of the blade, edged
with sharp flints that cut the body as well as steel. They had copper
hatchets for chopping wood, belts of the same material, and crucibles
in which to melt it. For provisions they carried roots and grain, a sort
of wine made from maize, and great quantities of almonds. This is a
fragment of the history of Yucatan, simply a suggestion of what can be
found by study, and some day when you have nothing to do, ask Poyor to
tell you of his people's traditions."

Cummings had succeeded in interesting the boys despite Neal's assertion
that it would be impossible to think of anything but their own
condition, and Teddy asked, hoping to hear more about the country:

"How large is Yucatan?"

"I question if even the officials know. It is set down as containing
76,560 square kilometres, with 302,315 in