In the afternoon we reached Panajachel, and after having found a place of shelter for the mules, I asked the way to the house of a lady to whom I had a letter of introduction. The envelope bore the address of Doña Aña Gertrudio Leon de Montalban. I was told that I should find her at home, and that I was to make inquiries at the small grocer’s shop in the main street. Accordingly I went to the shop and asked the old woman behind the counter, who was at the time employed in selling tallow candles, if she could kindly tell me where Doña Aña de Montalban was to be found. She said “Señor, permit me to look at the letter,” and putting on her spectacles, she gazed at the envelope, opened it and slowly read what was inside. After having grasped the meaning of the writing, she smiled and said—“I am Doña Aña and this letter is written by a very good friend of mine, and Señor, my house is very much at your service; if you will wait for a few minutes until I have closed the shop, I will give you a room, the cook shall prepare a supper this evening, and I hope you will make yourself as comfortable as the poor means at my disposal will permit.” Panajachel was crowded with Indians. It was the day of the festival of the Patron Saint of an adjacent church, and they had all been to there present offerings and light their candles at the shrines. In the evening numerous Indian women dressed in white passed through the village, carrying candles home to place before the altar of their own house idol. The cura of the district, Padre Pedro, asked me to join him, after his duties were concluded, and talk about the events of the day. The Padre was evidently a capable and zealous priest. He had the reputation of having studied the character and language of his Indian congregations, and of being acquainted with their habits and traditions. I was therefore glad to have an opportunity of obtaining from such a good authority some well-founded information respecting the reports of sacrifices to the lake and volcano. Father Pedro said that the ancient custom of sacrificing maidens at Atitlan, was also followed at the mountain near Quezaltenango. Whenever the rumbling noises were heard, threatening an eruption, a maiden was offered as a sacrifice to the angry god by throwing her into the crater. There used also to be performed some sacrificial ceremonies connected with the worship of the goddess of the lake, but he did not know what were the customs upon those occasions. The Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg relates, in his notes of a journey through S. Salvador, that the lake of Xilopango was originally consecrated to the goddess of water, and that in each year, when the maize was about to ripen, four young girls were sacrificed.