Note 4 — Decade Fourth

The reader will not be wearied with knowing the characteristics of another animal called hamac. It resembles a monkey, although the head is very round. Its eyes are golden, and very beautiful and large. Its tail is very large and serves it as a seat, and it neatly wraps itself about with it. It does not use its feet to walk; for, in order to go from one part to another, it lets its tail drop, and supporting itself on it, leaps as it wishes. It is not seen by day, because it keeps quiet until night, when it looks for its food, which is only charcoal.4 All its friendship is with the moon. Accordingly, seated on a tree, it awaits the moon, until the time when it shines. It looks at it fixedly without winking, from the time when it begins to shine [185] until it hides itself. When the dawn comes, that animal loses its sight and returns to its dwelling. If anyone discovers it, that animal takes pains to look at him, and measures and takes note of his person with his sight, from top to toe. That is usually a cause for fear, to those who do not know that characteristic; but, if he knows it, that threatening causes him no fear. Finally, concluding the description of that island, the reader must know that it is called Cesarea, in memory of the unconquerable Charles Fifth—a name that was given it by Bernardo de la Torre, captain and master-of-camp of Ruy Lopez de Villalobos, in the year 1543; and under that name it was designated by the documents and writings of that period.