| 236 INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
vaquero led the way up it on horseback, and we fol-
lowed, dismounting at the top. On this terrace was
a circular hole like those before referred to at Ux-
mal and other places, but much larger ; and, looking
down into it till my eyes became accustomed to the
darkness, I saw a large chamber with three recesses
in different parts of the wall, which the major dolno
said were doors opening to passages that went un-
der ground to an extent entirely unknown. By
means of a pole with a crotch I descended, and
found the chamber of an oblong form. The doors,
as the major domo called them, were merely recesses
about two feet deep. Touching one of them with
my feet, I told him that the end of his passage was
there, but he said it was tapado, or closed up, and
persisted in asserting that it led to an indefinite ex-
tent. It was difficult to say what these recesses
were intended for. They threw a mystery around
the character of these subterranean chambers, and
unsettled the idea of their being all intended for
wells.
Beyond this, on a higher terrace, among many re-
mains, were two buildings, one of which was in a
good state of preservation, and the exterior was orna-
mented all around with pillars set in the wall, some-
what different from those in the facades of other build-
ings, and more fanciful. The interior consisted of but
a single apartment, fifteen feet long and nine feet wide.
The ceiling was high, and in the layer of flat stones
along the centre of the arch was a single stone, like
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