the stone column, the petty King
and the rest of his family and followers worship. The said column is
called, in the name by which they worship it, Yax cheel cab, which
means in their language, 'the first tree in the world,' and, as is
understood in their old songs (which few people understand) they wish
to have it known they worship it because it was the tree of whose fruit
our first father Adam ate, who in their language is called Ixanom. In
the small part which is fortunately preserved, and the mask, which
stands in the said foundation of the said column, they worship him with
the title of the son of the very wise God. In their language they call
him Ahcocahmut...."

At the Temple. "We came to the said temple which had more space than
the hall of the petty King, although it is the same in its structure.
Here we dimly saw a box suspended,[9.4] in which we saw indistinctly
(although hastily) a bone of the leg or thigh, very large in size,
which appeared to be that of a horse; and I confess that though we had
much to do that afternoon, which was the time that we stayed in that
temple, we acted a little unwisely, since we neither asked what that
bone was, nor did we remember in the rest of the days to go and look at
it more deliberately. This thought occurred to us when we had left
Peten, when our error was irremediable (which was a cause of greater
grief) because we remembered then that that bone was by chance from the
horse which Cortes left in their care, which they had kept as a relic
or to hold him in memory, since they rendered worship (as I said
before) to his statue."

The Padres Read the Letters. "At last I brought out the letters of the
message and it cost no little trouble to make them sit down and keep
quiet, so that they might hear it. I called before us all the priests,
who are the Masters of the law, and all the caciques, captains and
chiefs of all the districts of that island or _Peten_.... I began to
read to them the message which the Governor sent in writing in the name
of the King our Lord; and in the few moments that I had read to them,
seeing their manner and the little attention which they showed, I
perceived that they did not understand what I was reading to them, and
having asked them about this, they replied in the words, '_manucan a
can tucot kanil caxicin_,' which means, 'we do not understand what you
say.' Then, leaving off reading the letter, ... I explained the said
message to them in