Cortes Author:Robert Montgomery Bird Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. As the Castilians followed the eyes of Najara, they beheld, approaching them from behind, three men, in whom, but for the direction given to thei... more »r thoughts by the exclamation, they would have seen nothing but the persons of Indians, belonging to some tribe more wild and savage than any which inhabited the valley. Their garments were coarse and singular; their gait—at least the gait of two of them,— not unlike to that of barbarians; and the look of wonder with which they surveyed the long train of the rear-guard, in which the high penachos, or plumes, and the copper-headed spears of Tlascalan chiefs, shone among the iron casques of Spanish cavaliers, was similarto the childish admiration of natives, unused to such a spectacle. Their dark countenances and long hair, their vestments and arms, were all of an Aztec character ; yet a second and more scrutinizing glance made it apparent, that one, at least, if not two of them, was of another and nohler race. The foremost, or leader, of the little band was undoubtedly a savage, as was seen by the depressed forehead, the high cheek-bones, the eye of a peculiar form, and the skin of even uncommon swarthiness, which distinguished him from his companions. His stature was short, almost dwarfish ; his toes were turned inwards ; and as he moved along with a shuffling gait, with advanced chest, and head still more protruded, his long locks, grizzled as with extreme age, fell from either side of his face, like patches of gray moss from the bough of a tree, and almost swept the ground. A coarse cloth was wrapped round his loins ; another of a square shape,—its opposite corners tied round his neck,—hung like a mantle, orrather a shawl, from his shoulders, over which were also strapped a bow and quiver of arrows; and a thick mat of...« less