HISTORY OF THE SPANISH CONQUEST OF YUCATAN AND OF THE ITZAS

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one enters the said Peten Ytza, on the shore of which is found a little
town called Nich, which consists of about ten houses. In one of them I
saw an Indian, the oldest one I had seen up to that time in the nation
of the Cehaches, nor up to the present time in that of the Ytzaes,
since they have the custom of beheading them when they pass fifty
years, so that they shall not learn to be wizards and to kill; except
the priests of their idols, for whom they have great respect. And this
man must have been one without doubt.

"In the region of the said road, there are many hills and great density
of woods on the hills, many cedar and mahogany trees, which in this
tongue are called _punabes_, besides many others which I do not mention
so as to avoid annoyance. There are many overflowed places called
_Akalchees_; there are also three rivers, one of moderate size, which
from its falling from a high rock, makes noise enough; the other two,
although they too fall from a rather high place, are not so full of
water, though they wet us all because their streams are wide and