It led them through a dark passage into an interior court which was fairly clean and contained three estufas.

Its diameter did not exceed one hundred and fifty feet.
Toward this court, or yard, the stories of the building descended in terraces also; but though everywhere beams leaned up as ladders, access to the ground-floor was also afforded by narrow doorways closed with hides or mats.

It was hot and quiet in this yard; the sun shed glaring light into it and over the roofs.

Naked urchins played and squirmed below, whereas above, an old woman or some aged man would cower motionless, shading their blear eyes with one hand and warming their cold frames in the heat.

Okoya went directly to one of the ground-floor openings, lifted the deerskin that hung over it, and called out the usual greeting,-- "Guatzena!" "Opona,--'come in,'" responded a woman's voice.