Note 443 — Chapter XIII · WAR CUSTOMS OF THE NAHUAS.

In reference to the macana, which all assert to have been a most formidable weapon, I quote only a few authorities. 'Sus espadas de palo largas, de un palo muy fuerte, engeridas de pedernales agudísimos, que de una cuchillada cortaban á cercen el pescuezo de un caballo.' Motolinia, Hist. Indios, in Icazbalceta, Col. de Doc., tom. i., p. 188. Bernal Diaz describing a battle with the Tlascaltecs where Pedro de Moron was wounded and had his horse killed, says 'dieron vna cuchillada â la yegua, que le cortaron el pescueço redondo, y alli quedó muerta.' Bernal Diaz, Hist. Conq., fol. 44. 'Taglia come vn rasoio di Tolosa. Io viddi che combattendosi vn di, diede vn Indiano vna cortellata a vn cauallo sopra il qual era vn caualliero con chi combatteua, nel petto, che glielo aperse fin alle interiora, et cadde incontanente morto, & il medesimo giorno viddi che vn'altro cortellata a vn'altro cauallo su il collo che se lo gettò morto a i piedi.' Relatione fatta per vn gentil'huomo del Signor Fernando Cortese, in Ramusio, Navigationi, tom. iii., fol. 305. The Anonymous Conqueror does not say the head was cut off, but that one horse was killed with a cut on the breast that opened it to the entrails, and the other from a cut on the neck was laid dead at his feet. 'Lo que podrán efectuar con aquella espada en el pescuezo del caballo sera de la herida cuanto entraren los filos en la carne, que no pasarán de un canto de real de plata, porque todo lo otro es grueso, por tener el lomo que arriba referimos las navajas.' Las Casas, Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. lxvi.; Hernandez, Nova Plant., p. 340; Purchas his Pilgrimes, vol. iv., p. 1129.