But they did not treat it as play.

We had been showed dances in Concepcion and Isabella, but here in Cuba, in this inland town, Jerez and Luis and I were given to see a great and formal dance, arranged all in honor of us, gods descended for our own reasons to mix with men! They danced in the square, but first they made us a feast with _hutias_ and cassava and fish and fruit and a drink not unlike mead, exhilarating but not bestowing drunkenness.

Grapes were all over these lands, purple clusters hanging high and low, but they knew not wine.
Men and women danced, now in separate bands, now mingled together.
Decorum was kept.

We afterwards knew that it had been a religious dance.
They had war dances, hunting dances, dances at the planting of their corn, ghost dances and others.

This now was a thing to watch, like a beautiful masque.