for such was their custom, and that married and honorable women
did not go to the camp; although the contrary of this was seen and
understood afterwards. For the Indians going outside the village, as
they do continually, to trade beside the sea, many of the wives and
daughters of the chiefs came to the camp along with the other women,
and thus went through the camp, visiting with as much freedom and
liberty as if all the men were their own brothers. Thus it was seen and
discovered later that this is one of their customs, and is exercised
with all strangers from the outside. The very first thing they do is
to provide them with women, and these sell themselves for any gain,
however slight" The natives are described as covetous and selfish,
without neatness and not cleanly. "It has not been ascertained whether
they have any idols. They revere their ancestors as gods, [71] and
when they are ill or have any other necessity, they go to their graves
with great lamentation and commendation, to beg their ancestors for
health, protection, and aid; They make certain alms and invocations
here. And in the same manner they invoke and call upon the Devil, and
they declare that they cause him to appear in a hollow reed, and that
there he talks with their priestesses. Their priests are, as a general
rule, women, who thus make this invocation and talk with the Devil,
and then give the latter's answer to the people--telling them what
offerings of birds and other things they must make, according to the
request and wish of the Devil. They sacrifice usually a hog and offer
it to him, holding many other like superstitions in these invocations,
in order that the Devil may come and talk to them in the reed: When
any chief dies, they kill some of his slaves, a greater or less number
according to his quality and his wealth. They are all buried in coffins
made out of two boards, and they bury with them their finest clothes,
porcelain ware, and gold jewels. Some are buried in the ground, and
others of the chief men are placed in certain lofty houses." [72]