at the mouth, seems to dislocate his joints, and after many violent and unnatural motions remains stiff and motionless, like a person in a fit of epilepsy.  After some time he comes to himself, as if having gained the victory over the evil spirit.  He next causes a faint shrill mournful voice to be heard within his tabernacle, as of the evil spirit, who is supposed to acknowledge himself vanquished; after which the wizard, from a kind of tripod, answers all questions that are put to him.  It is of little consequence whether these answers turn out true or false, as on all sinister events the fault is laid on the spirit.  On these conjuring occasions, the juggler is well paid by those who consult the destinies.

These southern nations make skeletons of their dead, as is done likewise by the native tribes on the Orinoco; but it is singular that this practice does not prevail among the intermediate tribes, that inhabit between the Maranon and Rio Plata.  On such occasions, one of the most distinguished women of the tribe performs the ceremony of dissection.  The entrails are burnt, and the bones, after the flesh has been cut off as clean as possible, are buried till the remaining fibres decay.  This is the custom of the Molnuches and Pampas, but the Serranos place the bones on a high frame-work of canes or twigs to bleach in the sun and rain.  While the dissector is at work on the skeleton, the Indians walk incessantly round the tent, having their faces blackened with soot, dressed in long skin mantles, singing in a mournful voice, and striking the ground with their long spears, to drive away the evil spirits.  Some go to condole with the widow and relations of the dead, if these are wealthy enough to reward them for their mourning with bells, beads, and other trinkets; as their customary condolence is not of a nature to be offered gratuitously, for they prick their arms and legs with thorns, and feel pain at least if not sorrow.  The horses belonging to the deceased are slain, that he may ride upon them in the alhue-mapu, or country of the dead; but a few of these are reserved to carry his bones to the place of sepulchre, which is done in grand ceremony within a year after his death.  They are then packed up in a hide, and laid on the favourite horse of the deceased, which is adorned with mantles, feathers, and other ornaments and trinkets.  In this manner the cavalcade moves to the family burial-place, often three hundred leagues from the place of death, so wide and distant are their wanderings in the boundless plains to the south of the Rio Plata.

The Moluches and Pampas bury in large square pits about six feet deep, the bones being first accurately put into their proper places and tied together, clothed in the best robes of the deceased, and ornamented with beads and feathers, all of which are cleaned or changed once a-year.  These skeletons are placed in a sitting posture in a row, with all the weapons and other valuables belong to each laid beside him.