Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/290

266 by the different birds. I assure Your Highness that all those birds which ate only fish received each day two hundred and fifty pounds, caught in the salt lakes. Three hundred men had the charge of these birds, for their sole employment. There were others who were occupied only in curing the birds which were ailing. Over each pool for these birds, there were beautifully decorated galleries, and corridors, where Montezuma came to amuse himself by watching them. There was an apartment in this house in which were men, women, and children, white of face, body, hair, and eyelashes from the day of their birth. There was another very beautiful house, with a large court, paved with flags, in the pattern of a chess board.

There were also houses about nine feet in height, and about six paces square; one half of each was covered with a roofing of square tiles, and the other half, which was open, had a stout lattice of wood. Each of these houses contained a bird of prey, representing all the sorts known in Spain, from the kestrel to the eagle, besides many other kinds, which had never been seen there; and there were great numbers of each of these kinds. Across the tops of these houses there was a perch, and another one out beyond the lattice, so that the birds might use the one at night and when it was raining, and the other to sun themselves, and take the air. All these birds were fed daily on chickens, with no other food. There were certain large rooms in this palace, fitted with great cages, very well constructed, and joined with heavy timbers, in all or most of which were kept lions, tigers, foxes, and every kind of cat in considerable numbers. These were also fed on chickens. Three hundred other men had charge of these animals and birds.

There was another house where many monstrous men and women lived, amongst whom there were dwarfs, hunchbacks, and deformed; and each manner of monster had a room apart, and they also had persons to take