Page:Here and there in Yucatan - miscellanies (IA herethereinyucat00lepl 0).djvu/95



HEN Hernando Cortez was on his way to Honduras, he stopped at a place called Zac Peten, or White Island, where he and his followers were very kindly received, the inhabitants even giving them various presents.

There, the Spaniards killed a number of deer in order to provide themselves with an abundant supply of dried venison. The deer were exceedingly numerous in those forests, because the natives never killed them; the historian Cogolludo says they were held sacred.

After several successive hunts, the horse of Cortez, being either hurt or exhausted, could not proceed on the journey, so its owner left it with the people of Zac Peten, telling them that he would some day return for it.

Those people had never before seen horses, and perceiving how much Cortez cared for the animal, they considered that it must be a creature gifted with intelligence. They called it Chaac Tzimin, or thunder and lightning horse, because, having seen