[Sidenote: Their strange Customs.] These People, both Men and Women go stark naked, not so much as covering their _Pudenda_; their Complexion swarthy; they shave off all their Hair, onely some Women leave a Tuft on their Heads. From their Faces, being broad and flat, one may judge them to be deriv’d from _Tartary_; they much exceed the _Europeans_ in Running and Swimming, insomuch that the Women oftentimes without any Boats, or floating pieces of Timber, venture two or three Leagues into the Sea; they have so great skill in Shooting, that they exceed almost all other Nations, having Arrows headed with sharp Fish-bones; they also use Lances and Clubs. The Women follow the Men in the Wars, and serve in stead of Horses to carry Ammunition and other Necessaries; to which Labor they are so us’d, that they will bear on their Shoulders forty, nay fifty Leagues together, such Luggage, as three _Spaniards_ are scarce able to lift from the Ground. They acknowledge no Commander or Superior either in Wars or Government; they keep up old Feuds, fighting with an inveterate hatred against their Neighbors, upon antient scores and revenges, still kept in memory of their Relations slain in former Battels, and also still creating fresh animosities upon their Losses in later Engagements. Their Language is smooth and pleasing, being spoken with a kind of lisping, and absolutely different from the neighboring Nations. When they eat they sit upon the Ground, and sleeping lie in Hammocks, each end whereof being fastned to a Post; underneath they kindle a Fire; over them they hang Fish-nets and Hooks, Fish-baskets and _Calabashes_. When they have occasion to ease Nature by evacuation, they retire into some private Place; but the Women think it no immodesty to make Water, even in the presence of strange Men. They observe not single Matrimony; for every Man takes as many Women as he pleases, under bonds of Wedlock such and so sleight, that he turns them off at his pleasure: and Women take the same liberty in casheering their Husbands when not pleasing them. They bring forth Children with little or no pain, and wash them in a River so soon as born; which done they return to their usual work and business. When they are incens’d against their Husbands, they revenge themselves by poysoning their Children. Their Houses are built in the fashion of a House-clock, with a Roof rais’d from the Wall upon four Pillars like the Bell, and cover’d with Palm-Leaves; some of which are so big, that they afford room for six hundred Men: every seventh or eighth year they remove, because (as they say) the Air is oftentimes infected by Mens Breaths, by their long continuance in one place. Their Riches consist in Feathers of divers colours, Strings of Fish-bones intermingled with green and white Beads, with which they adorn their Heads, Arms, Legs, Ears, and Cheeks: Gold and Pearls they make little account of; and as to Trade and Commerce with other People, they know not what belongs to it.