these three months, which it was painful to see; some departing covered with wounds or bruises, others with their eyes inflamed with the quantity of liquor which they had imbibed, and with this passion for drink they ruined themselves entirely.
P.—It has been said, in the preceding chapters, that the Indians commenced their years with days without names, preparing in the villages for the celebration of the feast of the new year. Besides the feast which they made to the god U-uayeyab, by right of which alone they went out from home, they solemnized especially these five days, seldom quitting their houses, except to present, besides the offerings made in public, different trifles to their gods in the other temples. They never afterwards employed, for their particular use, the bagatelles which they offered to the idols, but they bought the incense which they burned with it. They neither combed nor washed themselves during these days; neither men nor women cleansed themselves. They did not do any servile or fatiguing work, for fear that some misfortune might befall them.
APPENDIX NO. 4.
Manera de las casas en Yucatan[1]
Que la manera de hazer las casas era cubrirlas de paja que tienen muy buena y mucha, o con hojas de palma que es propia para esto y que tenian muy grandes corrientes para que no se lluevan, y que despues echan una pared por medio al largo que divide toda la casa, y que en esta pared dexan algunas puertas para la mitad que llaman las espaldas de la casa, dondf. tienen sus camas, y que la otra mitad blanquean de muy gentil encalado, y que los señores las tienen pintadas de muchas galanterias y que esta mitad es el recebimiento y aposento de los guespedes, y que esta pieça no tiene puerta, sino toda abierta conforme al largo de la casa, y baxa mucho la corriente delantera por temor de los soles y aguas, y dizen que tambien para ensenorearse de los enemigos de la parte de dentro en tiempo de necessitad. Y que el pueblo menudo hazia a su costa las casas de los señores, y que con
- ↑ Mode of building houses among the Yucateos, Landa, sec. xx, p. 110.
