emery, jasper, hard marble, and other sharp stones, by which they
served themselves instead of iron in cutting trees, making their
barges from a single trunk of a tree, hollowed with wonderful skill,
in which from fourteen to XV men will go comfortably; the short oar,
broad at the end, working it solely with the strength of the arms at
sea without any peril, with as much speed as pleases them.

Going further, we saw their habitations, circular in form, of XIIII to
XV paces compass, made from semi-circles of wood [_i.e._, arched
saplings, bent in the form of an arbor], separated one from the other,
without system of architecture, covered with mats of straw ingeniously
worked, which protect them from rain and wind. There is no doubt that
if they had the perfection of the arts we have, they would build
magnificent edifices, for all the maritime coast is full of blue
rocks, crystals and alabaster; and for such cause is full of ports and
shelters for ships. They change said houses from one place to another
according to the opulence of the site and the season in which they
live. Carrying away only the mats, immediately they have other
habitations made. There live in each a father and family to a very
large number, so that in some we saw XXV and XXX souls. Their food is
like the others: of pulse (which they produce with more system of
culture than the others, observing the full moon, the rising of the
Pleiades, and many customs derived from the ancients), also of the
chase and fish. They live a long time and rarely incur illness; if
they are opprest with wounds, without crying they cure themselves by
themselves with fire, their end being of old age. We judge they are
very compassionate and charitable toward their relatives, making them
great lamentations in their adversities, in their grief calling to
mind all their good fortunes. The relatives, one with another, at the
end of their life use the Sicilian lamentation, mingled with singing