Their habitations consist of tents made of hides sewn together, which are easily set up and moved from place to place. Their principal food is the flesh of mares and colts, which they prefer to any other; if they add anything in the shape of cakes or bread, it is made from maize and corn obtained from the Spaniards in exchange for salt and cattle, and blankets, of the manufacture of their women, for it is rarely they remain long enough in the same place to sow and reap themselves. Their Caciques or Ulmenes, as they call them, are generally chosen either for their superior valour or wisdom in speech--occasionally, but not always, the honour descends from father to son: they have but little authority in the tribe, except in time of war, when all submit implicitly to their direction. They are not, however, entirely without laws and punishments for certain crimes, such as murder, adultery, theft, and witchcraft. Thus he who kills another is condemned to be put to death by the relations of the deceased, or to pay them a suitable compensation. The woman taken in adultery is also punishable with death by her husband, unless her relations can otherwise satisfy him. The thief is obliged to pay for what he is convicted of stealing; and, if he has not the means, his relations must pay for him. As to those accused of witchcraft, they are burnt alive with very little ceremony; and such executions are of frequent occurrence, inasmuch as a man rarely dies a natural death but it is ascribed to the machinations of some one in communication with the evil spirit. The relatives of the deceased, in their lamentations, generally denounce some personal enemy as having brought about his end, and little more is necessary to ensure his condemnation by the whole tribe: sometimes in his agony the unhappy victim names others as his accomplices, and, if the dead man be of any importance amongst them, they too are often sacrificed to his manes in the same barbarous manner. As to their religion, they believe in a God, the creator and ruler of all things, though they have no form of worship: they also believe in the influence of an evil spirit, to whom they attribute any ill that befalls them. They consider that God has sent them into the world to do right or wrong as they please; that, when the body perishes, the soul becomes immortal, and flies to a place beyond the seas, where there is an abundance of all things, and where husbands and wives meet, and live happily together again.