waved certain pots of incense before him, as if to a demigod; a mark of distinction which they afterwards extended to the cavaliers that surrounded him. The religious ire of Don Amador de Leste was inflamed, when it became his turn to receive this fragrant compliment; and looking down fiercely upon the innocent censer-bearer, and somewhat forgetting that Castilian was not the language of the realm, he cried;-- "What dost thou mean, thou pagan dog! to smoke me in this idolatrous manner, who am neither a god nor a saint?" "Senor," said De Morla, who sat at his side, "be not offended at this mark of reverence, which the customs of the country cause to be rendered to every man of dignity; and which is a harmless compliment, and no idolatrous homage, as was first thought among us. Thou wilt presently see them smoke their own generals and senatorial lawgivers, the last of whom thou mayest see yonder approaching us in a group;--those old men with the feather fans in their hands." As De Morla predicted, the priests were no sooner done smoking their Christian visiters, than they turned to do similar reverence to their own dignitaries; and Don Amador's concern was soon changed to admiration to behold with what lofty state these noble savages received the tribute due to their rank. "This fellow with the red plume, and the sword that seems heavy enough for a giant's battle-axe," he cried,--"the knave over whom they hold a great, white bird like an ostrich?--He must needs be a king! He bends to Cortes, like an emperor doing courtesy to some brother monarch."