ith soft
feathers of different colours, and looked like uniforms; morions and
helmets constructed of wood and bones, likewise adorned with feathers.
There were always artificers at work, who continually augmented this
store of arms; and the arsenals were under the care of particular
personages, who also superintended the works.

Motecusuma had likewise a variety of aviaries, and it is indeed with
difficulty that I constrain myself from going into too minute a detail
respecting these. I will confine myself by stating that we saw here
every kind of eagle, from the king's eagle to the smallest kind
included, and every species of bird, from the largest known to the
little colibris, in their full splendour of plumage. Here were also to
be seen those birds from which the Mexicans take the green-coloured
feathers of which they manufacture their beautiful feathered stuffs.
These last-mentioned birds very much resemble our Spanish jays, and are
called by the Indians quezales. The species of sparrows were
particularly curious, having five distinct colours in their
plumage--green, red, white, yellow, and blue; I have, however, forgotten
their Mexican name. There were such vast numbers of parrots, and such a
variety of species, that I cannot remember all their names; and geese of
the richest plumage, and other large birds. These were, at stated
periods, stripped of their feathers, in order that new ones might grow
in their place. All these birds had appropriate places to breed in, and
were under the care of several Indians of both sexes, who had to keep
the nests clean, give to each kind its proper food, and set the birds
for breeding. In the courtyard belonging to this building, there was a
large basin of sweet water, in which, besides other water fowls, there
was a particularly beautiful bird, with long legs, its body, wings, and
tail variously coloured, and is called at Cuba, where it is also found,
the ipiris.

In another large building, numbers of idols were erected, and these, it
is said, were the most terrible of all their gods. Near these were kept
all manner of beautiful animals, tigers, lions of two different kinds,
of which one had the shape of a wolf, and was called a jackal; there
were also foxes, and other small beasts of prey. Most of these animals
had been bred here, and were fed with wild deers' flesh, turkeys, dogs,
and sometimes, as I have been assured, with the offal of human beings.

Respecting the abominabl