“Here and there along the route we were stopped by sentries or guards, but at last gained the top of the hill. Here, encircled by trees, was a flat table top or plateau a few acres in extent. “Rising on the plateau was a series of three square terraces culminating in a small ruined building, roofless yet sound as to its walls. The lowest plateau was packed with Indians; on the second were congregated the elect--the tribal seniors and the priests. Above them a figure or two moved in the building. “My friends took some time explaining my presence, and it was obvious that I was regarded with dark disfavour by the mass of the natives. Soon it dawned on me that I was under guard, an unobtrusive guard, but nevertheless under guard. At last I was taken to the high priest of the ceremonial. “He was a wonderful old Indian who spoke the accented Latin Spanish of forgotten generations. He examined me, and though I could not reply to certain mysterious ritualistic questions that he put to me, he was at length satisfied that I had an efficient working knowledge not only of his ritual but of its underlying astronomical and philosophical significance. Eventually he was satisfied, and on a word from him I was taken in hand by two native youths who bound a fillet of red-dyed wool worked with feather devices round my brow and gave me a peeled rod surmounted by a vulture’s skull to hold as a wand of office. Over my clothes was put a loose dark brown cotton robe sewn with charms and trimmed at each shoulder with tufts of sombre plumage. “Thus dressed I took my place among the elders. For a while nothing happened, then slowly the noise of the crowd died down and expectancy gave place to clamour. From somewhere in the forest came the sudden rhythm of native drums seemingly casual, inopportune, and meaninglessly cadenced. “Little by little the monotony of the drum throbbing became more insistent, more definitely rhythmical. A brazier in the temple building began to glow red, and far below in the valley mists we could see a group of flaring torches dancing like fireflies as their bearers scaled the difficult trail. “Suddenly the voice of the chief priest rose in a high-pitched wailing call, and as he hailed, a new and brilliant star seemed to spring into being over the dark crest of a nearby hill. “The assemblage bowed to the star and broke into a wailing Indian chant that kept time to the beating of the hidden throbbing drums. “After the prayer came the dance. To the centre of the second terrace bearers carried what looked like a bundle of blankets; then nude but for feather adornments, the young initiates came forward in processional dance. Every tenth man held a torch, and the dancers carried out a long ballet symbolical of the burial or consumption of the mortal body of the vultures.