HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



241 



beautiful mantles of this kind which are preferved ftill 

 by fome lords ; they wear them upon extraordinary 

 feftivals, as at thofe of the coronation of the Spanifh 

 kings. With cotton alfo they interwove the fined hair 

 of the belly of rabbits and hares, after having dyed and 

 fpun it into thread ; of thefe they made mod beautiful 

 cloths, and in particular winter waift coats for the lords. 

 From the leaves of the Pati and £>uetzaUchtli two fpecies 

 of the maguei, they obtained a fine thread, with which 

 they made cloths equal to thofe made of lint ; and from 

 the leaves of other kinds of the maguei, namely, thofe of 

 the mountain-palm, they drew a coarfer thread, fimilar to 

 hemp. The method they ufed to prepare thofe materials 

 was the fame which is pra&ifed by the Europeans for lint 

 and hemp. They foaked the leaves in water, then cleaned 

 them, put them in the fun, and beat them until they 

 were fit to fpin. 



Of the fame leaves of the mountain-palm, and alfo of 

 thofe of the izhuatl, another fpecies of palm, they made 

 extremely fine mats of different colours. They made 

 others more coarfe of the ruflies which grew in abundance 

 in the lake. 



Of the thread of the maguei they made alfo ropes, 

 flioes, and other things. 



They dreffed the Jkins of animals tolerably well, both 

 of quadrupeds and birds, leaving upon fome of them the 

 hair or plumage, according to the ufe which they pro- 

 pofed to make of them. 



Laftly, to convey fome idea of the tafte of the Mexicans 

 in arts, we have thought proper to tranfcribe here the 

 lift of the firft things which Cortes fent from Mexico to 

 Charles V. a few days after he arrived in that country (z). 



Vol. II. H h Two 



(z) This lift is taken from the hiftory of Gomara, then living in Spain, fome 

 things only omitted which were of little importance to be mentioned. 



