The house was a thatched building, about sixty feet long, and twenty broad, with mud walls seven feet high, two doors in the front, opposite to two others at the back, and without windows. The back part on the inside was divided into births, the divisions being formed of canes thinly covered with clay, projecting about six feet from the wall, with a bed place three feet wide, raised two from the floor; the whole appearing somewhat like a range of stalls in a stable. Opposite to these births, and running from one end to the other, excepting the spaces at the two doors, the floor was elevated about ten inches, and was six feet wide: this elevation was partly covered with small carpets and rugs, which with five or six low tables composed the whole of the household furniture. The two doors on the back side led to the kitchen, a range of building as long as the house, but entirely detached from it: here were several hearths, or fire-places, surrounded with small earthen pots, pans and some baskets made of split cane; and over each fire-place was suspended a flat kind of basket holding meat and fish, and answering the purpose of a safe: it is called by the indians a _chigua_. The horses were unsaddled, and the saddles placed on the floor at one end of the house. The family, or what I conceived to be the family, was composed of upwards of forty individuals. The father was between forty and fifty years old, and apparently enjoyed all the privileges of a patriarch. There were eight women, whom I considered to be his wives, though during my stay he appeared to associate with only one of them, if allowing her to wait upon him whilst eating and receiving from the others their respective dishes (which she placed successively on the small low table) can be called association. The young men eat the food brought to them at different tables, or in different parts of the house. The women and children adjourned to the kitchen, and there partook of what was left by the male part of the family. From the first day of my arrival to the last of my stay I always ate out of the same dish with the Cacique, or Ulmen, for his rank I did not exactly know. Our fingers supplied the place of forks, and large muscle shells that of spoons: knives I never saw used at table.