remained in the village did no work for seven consecutive days; for, if they did not do that, they feared the defeat of their companions.  On returning victorious, they asked their nearest dead relative, with their rude prayers (having stopped their boats), whether he would like to have a part in the taking of the captives whom they had.  If the boats moved—­which was but natural and necessary, since they were in the water—­they believed that he assented.  Thereupon, taking the best slave, they bound him hand and foot; and, taking him ashore, they passed the boat over him with great force and weight until they killed him with brutal cruelty.  The sacrifice was concluded in the house with the death of another captive, who was killed by the wife of the conqueror.

They showed themselves very dutiful toward their dead, burying them with lamentations and remarkable minuteness of detail, increasing or lessening the obsequies according to the quality and worth of their actions.  The nearest relatives were careful to close their mouths, for they feared lest the soul of the dead would enter into their bodies and do them a great deal of harm.  Then they began their mourning by lugubrious songs, which one of the kin intoned, while the others were very attentive in order to respond, in time, with fearful cries.  That lasted more or less time according to the excellence of the deceased, whose exploits were mentioned with great exaggeration.  The friends and acquaintances came in, both to console them and to become intoxicated, which formed the relief for that sorrow.  Only the mourners, who wore white, refrained from drinking, in order that they might receive the compliments of condolence soberly and in a dignified manner.

So great was their devotion to the souls of their parents and grandparents (whom they called humalagar), that they always offered them food in their banquets, especially when they finished any house, thinking that they themselves would die if they failed in that.  They did the same with the first yield of their fruits.  When they became sick, they invoked these ancestors to aid them, as we do the saints.  Then they summoned certain old witches, who were their physicians.  They respected the latter so greatly that, from the day on which they entered their doors, no fire was lit in that house, as a sign of great reverence.  The medicines applied were after consultation with the devil, in the shape of a little idol or a very ugly figure of a man or woman, whom they asked for the life of the sick person.  If the idol moved, it was a sign of death, just as remaining still was a sign of life and health.  They made the same tests in the water, by putting a boat in it, and observing from a distance its state of quietness or motion.