causing them to kill some in his service. This was not only made evident by their law requiring the burial of the living with the dead, as has been narrated, but also by other laws. For instance, when the son, the wife, or the brother of any chief died, he mourned; and during this mourning he fasted, not even eating rice, which is the ordinary bread of that country, or drinking wine--a deprivation which, for a race so fond of wine as this is, must have been a great hardship. During all this time he did not touch flesh or fish, but ate only roots and products of the soil, and drank water. This mourning lasted sometimes for years, sometimes less, in proportion to the love and esteem which was felt for the deceased. When it seemed to the people of the village that the time of mourning had lasted long enough, and that it would be well for their chieftain and head to treat himself more kindly--perhaps because during this time they drank less themselves, to show their sympathy with their lord--they discussed it among themselves and afterward with him. If he agreed with them, they all contributed to buy a slave, whom they handed over to him; and before them all the chief cut off the slave's head. With this the mourning came to an end, and he immediately began to drink with them like a man dying from abstinence. There was an Indian who, when the religious came to this country, confessed that he had killed twelve slaves in this manner on various occasions when he had been in mourning. This, however, was not the most honorable manner of bringing the mourning to an end; for those who could slay any one belonging to their enemies did so, even though it was a woman, a child, or an old person whom they killed. This was the best way of concluding the mourning, and was accordingly followed most by those who were in mourning. They also had another cruel custom like this, which they followed in their wars, which one village waged with another on the slightest occasion. If at any time they came to an agreement instead of a quarrel, it had to be done not without shedding human blood; and the side which in their opinion was in the wrong, or was the weaker party, bought a slave and delivered him to the other side. Then all these others killed him, not one failing to give him a wound even if he was already dead. They cut him in pieces; and with this they rested satisfied, as if this vengeance had been taken against all their opponents. Since their wars and outbreaks were so frequent, deaths which occurred in this manner must have been very many, although the number of those whom they slew in the wars was much greater. In general they took their enemies by surprise, and killed them all, not excepting women and children and old men. Such was their cruelty and their madness in this region that to slay any one of these was a great honor among them; and it sufficed to give the slayer the name of a valiant man, and to grant him the privilege of using certain