[959] 'Es el indio yucateco un monstruoso conjunto de religion é impiedad, de virtudes y vicios, de sagacidad y estupidez ... tiene ideas exactas precisas de lo bueno y de lo malo.... Es incapaz de robar un peso, y roba cuatro veces dos reales.... Siendo honrado en casi todas sus acciones ... se puede decir que el único vicie que le domina es el de la embriaguez.' Registro Yucateco, tom. i., pp. 291-3; Baeza, in Id., tom. i., pp. 166-8, 174; Morelet, Voyage, tom. i., p. 148; Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. iv., lib. x., cap. iv.; Mill's Hist. Mex., p. 158; Moro, in Garay, Reconocimiento, pp. 89-34; Müller, Reisen, tom. ii., p. 371.
[960] The Lacandones are of one stock with the Manches, and very numerous. They were highly civilized only one hundred and fifty years ago. Boyle's Ride, vol. i., preface, pp. 14-17. 'The old Chontals were certainly in a condition more civilised.' Id., pp. 286-95, 265-70. 'Die Chontales werden auch Caraiben genannt.' Wappäus, Geog. u. Stat., pp. 243-8, 265, 283-90, 311, 321, 326, 330, 335. It seems there existed in Nicaragua: Chorotegans, comprising Dirians, Nagrandans, and Orotiñans; Cholutecans and Niquirans, Mexican colonies; and Chondals. Squier's Nicaragua, vol. ii., pp. 309-12. Examine further: Müller, Amerikanische Urreligionen, p. 454; Froebel, Aus Amerika, tom. i., pp. 285-92; Puydt, Rapport, in Amérique Centrale, p. 69; Benzoni, Hist. del Mondo Nuovo, fol. 104; Malte-Brun, in Nouvelles Annales des Voy., 1858, tom. clviii., p. 200; Berendt, in Smithsonian Rept., 1867, p. 425; Crowe's Cent. Amer., p. 40; Hassel, Mex. Guat., pp. 357-8, 370; Dollfus and Mont-Serrat, Voy. Géologique, pp. 18-19; Morelet, Voyage, tom. i., pp. 202, 208, 272, tom. ii., pp. 49, 125, 313; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. ii., pp. 79, 110-11; Valois, Mexique, pp. 288, 299-300; Escobar, in Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., vol. xi., pp. 89-97.
[961] Crowe's Cent. Amer., pp. 40-1; Squier's Nicaragua, pp. 268, 278-9; Froebel's Cent. Amer., pp. 33-4; Dunn's Guatemala, pp. 277-8; Reichardt, Nicaragua, pp. 106-7; Montanus, Nieuwe Weereld, p. 272; Lafond, Voyages, tom. i., p. 338; Morelet, Voyage, tom. i., p. 260, tom. ii., pp. 126, 197; Andagoya, in Navarrete, Col. de Viages, tom. iii., p. 414; Belly, Nicaragua, tom. i., pp. 200-1; Scherzer, Wanderungen, pp. 52-3; Foote's Cent. Amer., p. 104. Round Leon 'hay más indios tuertos ... y es la causa el contínuo polvo.' Oviedo, Hist. Gen., tom. iv., p. 64. In Guatemala, 'los hombres muy gruessos.' Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. iii., lib. v., caps. xi., xii., dec. iv., lib. x., cap. xiv. 'Ceux de la tierra fria sont petits, trapus, bien membrés, susceptibles de grandes fatigues ... ceux de la tierra caliente sont grands, maigres, paresseux.' Dollfus and Mont-Serrat, Voy. Géologique, pp. 47, 21. 'Kurze Schenkel, langen Oberleib, kurze Stirne und langes struppiges Haar.' Bülow, Nicaragua, p. 78. 'The disproportionate size of the head, the coarse harsh hair, and the dwarfish stature,' of the Masayas. Boyle's Ride, vol. ii., pp. 8-9.
[962] Andagoya, in Navarrete, Col. de Viages, tom. iii., pp. 407, 414. In Salvador, the women's 'only garment being a long straight piece of cotton cloth without a seam.' Foote's Cent. Amer., pp. 103-4. The Nicaraguans 'se rasent la barbe, les cheueux, et tout le poil du corps, et ne laissent que quelques cheueux sur le sommet de la teste.... Ils portent des gabans, et des chemises sans manches.' D'Avity, L'Amérique, tom. ii., p. 93. 'The custom of tattooing, it seems, was practiced to a certain extent, at least so far as to designate, by peculiarities in the marks, the several tribes or caziques ... they flattened their heads.' Squier's Nicaragua, vol. ii., pp. 341, 345; Id., Nicaragua, pp. 273-4; Valenzuela, in Id., Cent. Amer., p. 566; Tempsky's Mitla, pp. 363-5, 368; Dollfus and Mont-Serrat, Voy. Géologique, pp. 19-20, 46-9, 56-60; Juarros' Hist. Guat., pp. 193-5; Hassel, Mex. Guat., pp. 302-5; Valois, Mexique, pp. 278-9; Gage's New Survey, pp. 316-8; Montgomery's Guatemala, pp. 98-9; Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. iii., lib. iv., cap. vii.; Morelet, Voyage, tom. ii., pp. 102, 126, 145, 171, 227, 245, 253; Galindo, in Nouvelles Annales des Voy., 1834, tom. lxiii., p. 149; Orozco y Berra, Geografía, p. 166; Gomara, Hist. Ind., fol. 263.
[963] The Lacandones have 'floating gardens which can navigate the lagoons like bolsas,' and are often inhabited. They have stone sepulchres highly sculptured. Pontelli, in Cal. Farmer, Nov. 7, 1862. 'In these ancient Chontales villages the houses were in the centre, and the tombs, placed in a circle around.... The Indians who before the Spanish conquest inhabited Nicaragua did not construct any large temples or other stone buildings.' Pim and Seemann's Dottings, pp. 126-7. They live like their forefathers 'in buildings precisely similar ... some huts of a single room will monopolise an acre of land.' Boyle's Ride, vol. ii., pp. 6-8; Gage's New Survey, pp. 318-19; Scherzer, Wanderungen, pp. 75, 430, 496; Puydt, Rapport, in Amérique Centrale, pp. 69-70; Valois, Mexique, p. 278; Benzoni, Hist. Mondo Nuovo, fol. 86, 102; Froebel's Cent. Amer., pp. 89, 96; Dollfus and Mont-Serrat, Voy. Géologique, pp. 19, 55; Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. iii., lib. iv., cap. vii.; Berendt, in Smithsonian Rept., 1867, p. 425; West und Ost Indischer Lustgart, pt. ii., pp. 380, 390; Valenzuela, in Squier's Cent. Amer., p. 566.
[964] They 'vivent le plus souvent de fruits et de racines.' Dollfus and Mont-Serrat, Voy. Géologique, pp. 47, 20-2, 69. 'Tout en faisant maigre chère, ils mangent et boivent continuellement, comme les animaux.' Morelet, Voyage, tom. ii., pp. 104, 92, 102, 132, 134, 145, 240, tom. i., pp. 205-6. Nicaraguans 'essen auch Menschenfleisch ... alle Tag machet nur ein Nachbar ein Fewer an, dabei sie alle kochen, vnd dann ein anderer.' West und Ost Indischer Lustgart, pt. i., p. 390. 'Perritos pequeños que tambien los comian, y muchos venados y pesquerías.' Andagoya, in Navarrete, Col. de Viages, tom. iii., pp. 413-14, 407. Hunting alligators: a man dives under, and fastens a noose round the leg of the sleeping monster; his companions then haul it on shore and kill it. Sivers, Mittelamerika, pp. 139, 130. Compare further: Findlay's Directory, vol. i., p. 253; Gage's New Survey, pp. 319-23; Scherzer, Wanderungen, pp. 412-13, 494; Benzoni, Hist. Mondo Nuovo, fol. 103-4; Juarros' Hist. Guat., pp. 196-7; Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. iv., lib. viii., cap. vii.-ix., lib. x., cap. xiv.; Escobar, in Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., vol. xi., p. 91; Laet, Novus Orbis, p. 320; Waldeck, Voy. Pitt., pp. 42-3.
[965] Dunlop's Cent. Amer., p. 337; Scherzer, Wanderungen, p. 173.
[966] The Lacandones 'emploient des flèches de canne ayant des têtes de cailloux.' Galindo, in Antiq. Mex., tom. i., div. ii., p. 67. See also, Bülow, Nicaragua, pp. 79-80; Hassel, Mex. Guat., p. 305; Juarros' Hist. Guat., pp. 195, 278; Scherzer, Wanderungen, pp. 413, 430; Froebel, Aus Amerika, tom. i., p. 358.
[967] Morelet, Voyage, tom. ii., p. 31; Pontelli, in Cal. Farmer, Nov. 7, 14, 1862.
[968] Valois, Mexique, pp. 278, 287; Sivers, Mittelamerika, p. 130; Scherzer, Wanderungen, p. 430; Montanus, Nieuwe Weereld, p. 279; Squier's Nicaragua, pp. 272-3; Valenzuela, in Id., Cent. Amer., p. 567. The Lacandon hut contained 'des métiers à tisser, des sarbacanes, des haches et d'autres outils en silex.' Morelet, Voyage, tom. ii., pp. 79, 104, 197, 211. 'Duermen en vna red, que se les entra por las costillas, o en vn cañizo, y por cabecera vn madero: ya se alumbran con teas.' Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. iv., lib. x., cap. xiv., dec. ii., lib. iii., cap. vi. At Masaya, 'Leur mobilier se compose de nattes par terre, de hamacs suspendus, d'un lit de cuir et d'une caisse en cèdre, quelquefois ornée d'incrustations de cuivre.' Belly, Nicaragua, tom. i., pp. 197-8.