Page:Vol 1 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/614

494 cavalry charged,and took refuge on the hill-slopes, flinging with their missiles jeers and insults. "Women!" they cried; "cowards, who fight only when mounted! You are going whence none of you shall escape!" The latter threat was frequently heard, but its meaning failed as yet to be understood. There was a worse enemy than the Mexicans, however, and that was hunger, which made itself severely felt, "although Spaniards can endure its pangs better than any other nation," vaunts Gomara, "and this band of Cortés' better than all." Eagerly they scanned the road side for fruit or roots, and many ate grass, while the Tlascaltecs threw themselves upon the ground and begged their gods to take pity upon them. One soldier opened a dead body and ate the liver, and when Cortés heard of it he ordered the man hanged, but the sentence was not executed. The route, at first craggy, passed through the towns of Quauhtitlan and Tepotzotlan, along the lake of Zumpango, to Citlaltepec, where camp was formed. The inhabitants had fled, but food was there to eat, and even to carry on their journey, and there they remained all the next day.