Page:The Native Races of the Pacific States, volume 2.djvu/182

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admitted air and sunlight. Five hundred turkeys were daily killed for food for these birds. Alligators were kept in ponds walled round to prevent their escape, and serpents in long cages or vessels, large enough to allow them to move about freely. These reptiles were also fed on human blood and intestines. Mr Prescott tells us that the whole of this menagerie "was placed under the charge of numerous keepers, who acquainted themselves with the habits of their prisoners, and provided for their comfort and cleanliness."

Thomas Gage, the shrewd old English heretic, takes another view. In his quaint though free and slashing style he writes: "But what was wonderful to behold, horrid to see, hideous to hear in this house, was the Officers' daily occupations about these beasts, the floor with blood like a gelly, stinking like a slaughter-house, and the roaring of the Lions, the fearful hissing of the Snakes and Adders, the doleful howling and barking of the Wolves, the sorrowful yelling of the Ownzes and Tigres, when they would have meat. And yet in this place, which in the night season seemed a dungeon of hell, and a dwelling place for the Devil, could a heathen Prince pray unto his Gods and Idols; for near unto this Hall was another of a hundred and fifty foot long and thirty foot broad, where was a chappel with a roof of silver and gold in leaf, wainscotted and decked with great store of pearl and stone, as Agats, Cornerines, Emeralds, Rubies, and divers other sorts; and this was the Oratory where Montezuma prayed in the night season, and in that chappel the Devil did appear unto him, and gave him answer according to his prayers, which as they were uttered among so many ugly and deformed beasts, and with the noise of them which represented Hell it self, were fitted for a Devil's answer."[31]