they would strike against the roof or roll over the
head; but the straps across the forehead were let out so long that the
calabashes rested below the hips, and in crawling on the hands and feet
their loads did not rise above the line of the back.

And this well was not, as at Xcoch, the occasional resort of a
straggling Indian, nor the mere traditionary watering-place of an
ancient city. It was the regular and only supply of a living
population. The whole rancho of Chack was entirely dependant upon it,
and in the dry season the rancho of Schawill, three miles distant.

The patient industry of such a people may well be supposed to have
reared the immense mounds and the great stone structures scattered all
over the country. We consumed a calabash of water in washing and
quenching our thirst, and as we rode back to the rancho of Schawill,
came to the conclusion that an admission into the community of this
exclusive people was no great privilege, when it would entail upon the
applicant, for six months in the year, a daily descent into this
subterraneous well.

We arrived at the rancho in good season. Mr. Catherwood had finished
his drawing, and Bernaldo was ready with his dinner. We had nothing to
detain us, ordered carriers forthwith for our luggage, and at half past
two we were in the saddle again in search of ruined cities.

The reader has some idea of the caminos reales of this country, and
they were all like English turnpikes compared with that upon which we
entered on leaving this rancho. In fact, it was a mere path through the
woods, the branches of the trees being trimmed away to a height barely
sufficient to admit of an Indian passing under with a load of maize on
his back. We were advised that it would be very difficult to get
through on horseback, and were obliged to keep dodging the head and
bending the body to avoid the branches, and at times we were brought to
a stand by some overhanging arm of a tree, and obliged to dismount.

At the distance of two leagues we reached the rancho of Sannacte, the
Indians of which were the wildest people in appearance we had yet seen.
As we rode through, the women ran away and hid themselves, and the men
crouched on the ground bareheaded, with long black hair hanging over
their eyes, gazing at us in stupid astonishment. The same scarcity of
water still continued. The rancho was entirely destitute; it had no
pozo or well of any kind, either ancient or modern, and the inhab