Pelican

FROM THE FLORENTINE CODEX, BOOK 11: it is the ruler, the leader of all the water birds, the ducks. when the various birds come, this is when it comes; it brings them here at the time of the feast of santiago, in the month of july / and the head of the pelican is rather large, black. its bill is yellow, round, a span long. its breast, its back are all white; its tail is not long; only average. its legs have no long bones at all; its feet are at its body. they are about a span long, very wide. its body is long, very thick. its wings are not very large; its wing feathers are not very long / this pelican does not rest anywhere in the reeds; it always lives there in the middle of the water, and it is said that it is the heart of the lagoon because it lives in the middle. also it sinks people. to sink them it only summons the wind; it sings, it cries out. it sinks them only when they try to catch it. to catch it they stalk it two, three, or four days. but if they fail to catch it by the third day, on the fourth day the water folk prepare themselves and then assemble and steel themselves to go forth to die. for this is the custom of the water folk. for this pelican, after four days, sits awaiting the water folk; it rests on the water's surface; it sits looking at them. for if they fail to catch it in four days, by sunset, when the fifth sounds, the water folk thus know it as a sign that they will die; for they who have failed to catch it have been tried. and this pelican, when they have failed to shoot it by sunset of the fourth day, then calls out, cries out like a crane; it summons the wind to sink the people. thereupon the water foams; thereupon the water birds cry out exceedingly; they arrange themselves as it were in rows on the surface of the water: they beat [their wings]. all the fish well up. and the water folk can no longer help themselves, although they try hard to pole. their arms are simply numbed; it is as if someone pulls them down. so there the water folk die; there the boat sinks. and when the pelican can be caught, when it can be shot, perhaps they can shoot it, they can take it in two or three days. when the water folk shoot it, at once they seize it. they quickly, firmly grasp its bill; then they cast it into the boat. there they quickly disembowel it, it still lives. they disembowel it with a dart, three points at its head, called minachacalli. they seize it quickly, they grasp its bill firmly and quickly, so that it cannot regurgitate what is within it. for if they do not do so, it will at once regurgitate what is within it. then they take it, whereupon they cut open its gizzard. within it is a precious green stone; and if not a green stone, various precious feathers are there within, in its gizzard. and if they do not find a precious green stone or a feather, only a piece of charcoal appears there, this becomes a sign that the hunter will die. but for him who finds, who takes from it, a precious green stone or feather, it becomes a sign that he always will be able to take, to capture, the various birds or fish; he will prosper. although, as has been said, all which he will eat will be at hand--the various birds which he will capture--his grandsons will be in debt; they will indeed be poor. and thus is the flesh of the pelican eaten: all the water folk assemble. they eat it only as a choice food; only very little is offered one. for it is verily the heart of the water / this pelican also takes with it the different water birds, when it goes. it goes there toward the west, where the sun sets. these water folk consider it as their mirror. for there they see what each is to merit in their profession as water folk

my favorite bird