The circumstances under which the cross was placed upon the table in the hut near Abalá were peculiar. It was clear that the cross was looked upon as an idol, and that the offerings made to it were propitiations. In Yucatan there were instances known of several of the principal Indians keeping a cross in their house. This was not necessarily a Latin cross, for it was sometimes formed into a shape varying according to the imagination of the owners. The Indians are rapidly becoming so neglected with regard to all religious education, that it is not improbable that they will gradually return to many of their idolatrous practices. In the beginning of this century the Spanish authorities in Mexico ordered an inquiry to be made regarding the condition of the Yucatan Indians, and directions were given to ascertain whether they still maintained any of the superstitious usages followed before the conquest. There was a Report made by the curate of Yaxcabá which was considered to be especially deserving of mention, because he had been in charge of a large parish and had lived for many years among his Indians, and was known to be well acquainted with their language and habits. One of the superstitions that he reported is remarkable from its having evident analogies with one of the methods adopted by the medicine men in curing the sick amongst the Dakotas in North America. It will be seen by his account of the custom of divining through the medium of a crystal, that ignorant human nature in Yucatan, as in many other parts of the world, seeks to learn the future by similar methods. The curate, in his reply to one of the questions put to him, stated as follows[95]:—“Amongst the common masses of the Indians there are many superstitions. In the first fifteen years that I held this curacy they told me much, but after making examples upon the delinquents by punishing them with floggings and penances in accordance with superior commands, it is now fully fifteen years that all is done in silence, and it is only from time to time that there is any sign.