Cortés paraded his men in military formation to the music of drums and fifes. They staged a show of combat, swords flashing. Alvarado led a troop of horsemen to gallop along the beach, bells attached to their mounts’ bridles. The lombard guns loosed several detonations. Teudile was overcome with admiration. When the artillery fired, he and his friends fell to the ground in fear. They were also impressed by the appetites of the horses. The Mexicans may have continued to think of these animals as deer. But perhaps some folk memory may have reminded them that there had once been horses in the Americas. For, at certain fiestas, deer with manes and tails were sometimes modelled from amarynth seed.