CHAPTER XXXI.
PARTING—SOTANÁ—A MILLIONAIRE—OCOSING—RUINS—BEGINNING OF THE RAINY SEASON—A FEMALE GUIDE—ARRIVAL AT THE RUINS—STONE FIGURES—PYRAMIDAL STUCTURES—AN ARCH—A STUCCO ORNAMENT—A wodden DINTEL—A CURIOUS CAVE—BUILDINGS, ETC.—A CAUSEWAY—MORE RUINS—JOURNEY TO PALENQUE—RIO GRANDE—CASCADES—SUCCESSION OF VILLAGES—A MANIAC—THE YAHALON—TUMBALA—A WILD PLACE—SCENE OF GRANDEUR AND SUBLIMITY—INDIAN CARRIERS—A STEEP MOUNTAIN—SAN PEDRO.
On the first of May, with much bustle and confusion, we moved out of Don Santiago's house, mounted, and bade him farewell.
I must pass over the next stage of our journey, which was through a region less mountainous, but not less solitary than that we had already traversed. The first afternoon we stopped at the hacienda of Sotaná, belonging to a brother-in-law of Don Santiago, in a soft and lovely valley, with a chapel attached, and bell that at evening called the Indian workmen, women and children to vesper prayers. The next day, at the abode of Padre Solis, a rich old cura, short and broad living on a fine hacienda, we dined off solid silver dishes, drank out of silver cups, and washed in a silver basin. He had lived at Palenque, talked of Candones or unbaptized Indians, and wanted to buy my macho, promising to keep him till he died; and the only thing that relieves me from self-reproach in not securing him such pasture-grounds is the recollection of the padre's weight.
At four o'clock on the third day we reached Ocosingo, likewise in a beautiful situation, surrounded by mountains, with a large church; and in the wall of the yard we noticed two sculptured figures from the ruins we proposed to visit, somewhat in the same style as those at Copan. In the centre of the square was a magnificent Ceiba tree. We rode up to the house of Don Manuel Pasada, the prefet, which, with an old woman-servant, we had entirely to ourselves, the family being at his hacienda. The house was a long enclosure, with a shed in front, and furnished with bedsteads made of reeds split into two, and supported on sticks resting in the ground.
The alcalde was a Mestitzo, very civil, and glad to see us, and spoke of the neighbouring ruins in the most extravagant terms, but said they were so completely buried in El Monte that it would require a party of men for two or three days to cut a way to them; and he laid great stress upon a cave, the mouth of which was completely choked up with stones, and which communicated by a subterraneous passage with the
