re or less, to what his
observation has taught him. The babblers are apt to be graceful at
mottoes and in the witty sayings which they tell to their elders and
Judges if they are over-rigourous, ambitious, avaricious, laying before
them the events that have taken place and even that which concerns the
officer's own duties. They thus speak to the officers' very faces, and
sometimes they rebuke them with a single word. But he who would
understand them must be a great linguist and must listen well. They are
very dangerous, these representations, when they are held at night and
in the Indians' own houses, for God knows what goes on there, and at
the very least many of them end up in drunkenness. They call these
Farfantes _Balzam_, and they apply the word metaphorically to him who
is talkative and scurrilous; and in their representations they mimic
birds.

"They held, and still do hold, banquets on the occasion of weddings and
betrothals, using up in one day many turkeys that they have been
breeding for a whole year. Those who are leaving the office of Alcalde
entertain those who are entering it, on the pain of disgrace, and on
election nights there is much drunkenness.

"The Indians of this land were and are very dextrous with the bow and
arrows, and so they are mighty huntsmen, and they grow dogs so that
they may fetch deer, wild boar, badgers. Tigers, some little Lions,
rabbits, armadillos, iguanas, and other animals. They shoot with their
arrows peacocks [sic], some birds they call _faysanes_ [pheasants], and
many others.

"At present they are great imitators of all the different sorts of
handiwork that are made, and so they learn all the trades with ease.
There are many Indians in their villages, beside those who live in the
City and in the Towns, who are great workers as smiths, locksmiths,
bridlemakers, shoemakers, carpenters, wood-carvers, sculptors,
saddlers, tradesmen who make many curious things out of shell,
bricklayers, stonecutters, tailors, painters, and so on. What causes
wonder is that there are many Indians who work at four or six trades
where a Spaniard would have but one ... but with that almost innate
coolness for work they supply their wants and turn out good work, which
they sell more cheaply than the Spaniards do, so that those tradesmen
who go to Yucathan fare badly at their trades; so there are but few of
them, and they seek other means of earning a livelihood.

"They wear clothes of very white