Letter: A hound's life

Sir: Mr Blair's threat to foxhunting encourages me to point out the harm done by Cortez and his criminals when they cruelly abolished the ancient customs of the Aztecs.

Apart from the brave soldiery who recruited suitable persons, many Aztecs spent honourable lives crafting the holy knives used to remove (painlessly) the hearts of the so-called "victims". Labourers worked in the extraction of obsidian. Craftsmen laboriously shaped, polished, and honed this recalcitrant mineral into mystical instruments of the highest imaginable sharpness.

At a stroke, this beautiful and spectacular custom was brutally ended. Priests were murdered by Cortez and his godless crew. Thousands were consigned to idleness and malnutrition. The Heavenly Bodies themselves underwent serious perturbation, followed, of course, by disastrous maize harvests.

Dear British foxhunters, we Aztecs stand shoulder to shoulder with you in your valiant defence of your country's traditions.