Page:History of the Spanish Conquest of Yucatan and of the Itzas.pdf/42

Rh The Palace of Canek, Chief of the Itzas. “Of this same workmanship is the hall which the King or Ah Canek has as a vestibule to his house, in which he receives his guests as he did us, although in addition it has the floor covered with bitumen and polished, which the said temples do not have. At the entrance of the said hall stands a large stone table more than two yards long and proportionally broad, placed on stone columns, with twelve seats of the same around it for the priests. This is the table of sacrifice, which they call in their language Mayactun, -the first object which our eyes perceived in that first reception, from which, with the preceding attempts on the lake, we were able to conjecture that they would put us to death; and the more so when we saw that the number of people who ran together at the novelty of seeing us was so great, that besides filling all the hall inside, those who could not find a place there, obstructed on the outside all the light which the hall had, and which came in all around it, so that they left us in such gloomy darkness, that, being seated, as I was, in the midst of my companion Padres, we could only perceive one another by the touch; but such a thing did not come into our minds, but rather we understood that here was the room of welcome for all....

The Districts of Peten Itza. “I asked them how many districts that Peten had on which we were, and counting by the fingers on their hands and the toes on their feet, they told me there were twenty-two, which they went on to describe by their names, and they are as follows: