net hammocks made of cotton, suspended at some height; and however extraordinary or disagreeable this custom may appear, I have found it exceedingly pleasant, and much preferable to the carpets which we use.  Their bodies are very clean and sleek, owing to their frequent bathing.  When about to ease nature they are at great pains to conceal themselves from observation, yet are very indecent in discharging their urine, which they would do at any time, both men and women, while conversing with us.  They observe no law or covenant in regard to marriage, every man having as many wives as he pleases or can procure, and dismissing them at pleasure, and this license is common both to men and women.  They are little addicted to jealousy, yet much given to lust, in which the women far exceed the men.  From motives of decency I here omit describing the expedients they put in practice for satisfying their inordinate desires.  The women are very prolific, and do not shun labour or fatigue while pregnant.  Their deliveries are attended with little pain, so that they are able immediately afterwards to go about their usual occupations in perfect health and vigour; going in the first place to wash themselves in the nearest river.  Yet such is their proneness to cruelty and malignant spite, that if exasperated by their husbands, they take a certain poison in revenge, which kills the foetus within them, so that they afterwards miscarry, by which abominable practice vast numbers of their children are destroyed.  Their bodies are so elegant and well proportioned, that hardly is any the smallest deformity to be seen among them.  Though they go entirely naked among the women, their appearance is tolerably decent[5], yet are they no more moved by this exposure than we are by shewing our faces.  It is rare among them to see any women with lax breasts or shrivelled bellies through frequent child-birth, as they are all equally plump and firm afterwards as formerly.  Their women were extremely fond of our men.

We could not perceive that this nation had any religion, nor ought they on that account to be accounted worse than the Jews, or Moors, since these nations are much more reprehensible than the pagans or idolaters.  We could not discover that they performed any sacrifices or sacred rites of any kind, neither had they any temples or other places for worship.  Their way of living, which is exceedingly voluptuous, I consider as epicurean[6].  Their houses, which are common to all, are built in the shape of a bell, firmly constructed of large pieces of timber, and covered over with palm leaves, so strong as to be able to resist winds and storms; some of them so large as to be able to contain six hundred persons.  Among these we found eight that were exceedingly populous, as in them there dwelt ten thousand souls[7].  Every seven or eight years they change their place of residence; and when asked the reason of this, they said that through the heat of the sun, the air would become infected by a longer