| RUINS OF YAKATZIB. 229
fruit, but the oranges were all of the sour kind.
we could not sit down under the trees, for the
ground was teeming with garrapatas, ants, and other
insects, and while standing we were obliged to switch
theca off with our riding whips. Soon Albino came
thundering along on the trotter, and we learned that
we had really passed Yakatzib, as the women had
no doubt told us. While we were mounting to go
back, a boy passed on a miserable old horse, his bare
body perched between two water-kegs, with which
he was going to the aguada. For a medio he slip-
ped off, tied his horse to a bush, and ran before us as
our guide through the rancho, beyond which, turning
off to the right, we soon reached a ruined edifice.
It was small, and the whole front was gone ; the
door had been ornamented with pillars, which had
fallen, and lay on the ground. The boy told us that
there were ruined mounds, but no other remains of
buildings. We turned back without dismounting,
and continued our journey.
At two o'clock we reached the foot of a stony
sierra, or mountain range, toilsome and laborious for
the horses, but Mr. Catherwood remarked that his
pricked up his ears and trod lightly, as if just begin-
ning a journey. From the top of the same sierra we
saw at its foot, on the other side, the village of Be-
canchen, where, on arriving, we rode through the
plaza, and up to a large house, the front of which
was adorned with a large red painting of a major
domo on horseback, leading a bull into the ring.
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