picturesqueness of aspect that no other village in the
country had exhibited. On the left, on a raised platform, stood the
church, and by its side the convent. In consideration of what the cura
had already done for us, and that we had a large party--perceiving,
also, that the casa real, a long stone building with a broad portico in
front, was really inviting in its appearance, we resolved to spare the
cura, and rode up to the casa real. Well-dressed Indians, with a
portly, well-fed cacique, stood ready to take our horses. We dismounted
and entered the principal apartment. On one side were the iron gratings
of the prison, and on the other two long beams of wood with holes in
them for stocks, and a caution to strangers arriving in the village to
be on their good behaviour. Our carriers had arrived. We sent out to
buy ramon and corn for the horses, had our hammocks swung, and sat down
under the corridor.

We had hardly time to seat ourselves before the vecinos, in their clean
afternoon clothes, and some with gold-headed canes, came over to "call
upon us." All were profuse in offers of services; and as it was the
hour for that refreshment, we had a perplexing number of invitations to
go to their houses and take chocolate. Among our visiters was a young
man with a fine black beard all over his face, well dressed, and the
only one wearing a black hat, whom, as we knew they were about drilling
companies in the villages to resist the apprehended invasion of Santa
Ana, we supposed to belong to the army, but we afterward learned that
he was a member of the church militant, being the ministro, or
assistant, of the cura. The cura himself did not come, but one of our
visiters, looking over to the convent, and seeing the doors and windows
closed, said he was still taking his siesta.

We had time to look at the only objects of interest in the village, and
these were the wells, which, after our straits at Chunhuhu, were a
refreshing spectacle, and of which our horses had already enjoyed the
benefit by a bath.

Bolonchen derives its name from two Maya words: _Bolon_, which
signifies nine, and _chen_ wells, and it means the nine wells. From
time immemorial, nine wells formed at this place the centre of a
population, and these nine wells are now in the plaza of the village.
Their origin is as obscure and unknown as that of the ruined cities
which strew the land, and as little thought of.

These wells were circular openings cut through