HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



187 



with a gourd ; the ducks came to peck at it, and then he 

 pulled them by the feet under water, and in this manner 

 fee u red as many as he pleafed. 



They took ferpents alive either by twilling them with 

 great dexterity, or approaching them intrepidly, they 

 feized them with one hand by the neck, and fewed up 

 their mouths with the other. They ftill take them in 

 this way, and every day in the apothecaries fhops of the 

 capital, and other cities, may be feen live ferpents which 

 have been taken in this manner. 



But nothing is more wonderful than their quicknefs in 

 tracing the fteps of wild beads. Although there is not 

 the fmalleft print of them to be feen from the earth being 

 covered with herbs or dry leaves which fall from the 

 trees, they ftill track them, particularly if they are wound- 

 ed, by obferving moil attentively fometimes the drops of 

 blood which fall upon the leaves as they pafs, fome- 

 times the herbs which are broken or beat down by their 

 feet (s). 



From the fituation of their capital, and its vicinity to 

 the lake of Chalco, which abounded with flfh, the Mex- 

 icans were ftill more invited to fifhing than the chace. 

 They employed themfelves in it from the time of their 

 arrival in that country, and their art in filing procured 

 them all other neceffaries. The inftruments which they 

 moft commonly made ufe of in fifhing were nets, but they 

 alfo employed hooks, harpoons, and weals. 



The fiftiers not only caught fifli, but even took croco- 

 diles in two different methods. One was by tying them 



by 



(s) The account which we have of the Taraumarefe, the Opates, and other 

 nations beyond the Tropic, .when purfued by their enemies the Apacci, is ftill 

 more wonderful ; for by tfhjeftouch and obfervations of the footfteps of their ene-, 

 mies, they can tell the time at which they palfed there. The fame thing we 

 mnderftand i« reported otthe people of Yucatan. 



