HISTORY OF THE SPANISH CONQUEST OF YUCATAN AND OF THE ITZAS

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such submission was a sure sign of his real treachery. It was now about
four o'clock in the afternoon without their having had speech with the
King, at which they went at once to the house of a friend of theirs,
and I saw that the King took little account of them, and it was
because, as I knew afterwards from the mouth of the King, they were his
enemies...."


Avendano Makes Inquiries as to their Manner of Reckoning Time. "I told
them that I wished to speak to them of the old manner of reckoning
which they use, both of days, months and years and of the ages, and to
find out what age the present one might be (since for them one age
consists only of twenty years) and what prophecy there was about the
said year and age; for it is all recorded in certain books of a quarter
of a yard high and about five fingers broad, made of the bark of trees,
folded from one side to the other like screens; each leaf of the
thickness of a Mexican _Real_ of eight. These are painted on both sides