The Indians are wanting in the possession of many animals, especially those most necessary for the service of man; they have others, most of which they make useful for their support, none however being domestic except the dogs; these do not bark or do harm either to people or to the game, though they aid in trapping the quail and other birds, and join in the hunting of the deer, some of them being fine trackers. They are small, and the Indians eat them at fiestas, though I understand they are ashamed of it, and have poor regard for it. They say that they have a good flavor.
There are tapirs among the dogwood trees only in the country beyond the Campeche hills, where there are many to be found. The Indians have told me that they are of many colors, gray, dappled, bays and chestnuts; others quite white, and also black. They go more in this part of the country than in any other, for it is an animal very fond of the water, and there are many lakes among those woods and sierras. They are of the size of ordinary mules, very light-footed, with cloven hoofs like cattle, and a trunk in which they hold water. The Indians hold it a great achievement to kill them, and preserve the skins even for their great-grandchildren, as I have seen. They call them tzimin, and from that they have given this name to horses.
There are small lions and tigers, which the Indians kill with the bow as they lie on the trees. There is also a certain kind of bear, or quierque, very