25 / 1060
.• '<·
BooK
I.
Roy/JI
Comm-entaries~
begot
upon thofe
Women
wbc:>qt
they ,had
tak~n
·captives
in the War,
but
bree
7
ding
them
with fuch care
and
diet
a~
might make them fat;
fo
foon as they came
to
be twelve
~
ears of
age
and that
they
~1ere
plump and tender,
they
.dreifed
them
for
their Table
and
dev~uted
them
with
their
Mothens,
unleiS
they
Were
with,
Child; for
the~
they referved
them
till
they were
qeJive~ed,
and
had nur_fed up
their
brood.
Moreover to rliofe Men
vvhom,
they
took
I?
the
War
they gave
Women,
and their
breed they nourHlie_d_
and famed,
with
i~tent
to eat
th~m,
as
. we do Lambs
and Calves,
and
die young ones of our heards
an~
Hocks, wirhouc:
·xegard co
Blo~d
or Parentage,.
which
even in
brute
~eafis
hath fmne
effeet
of
10\ e
and
tendemefs. Butwhat
was
moft aboniioaole above
all,
was a
cuft0m~
amongft
fome
JndianJ
co
eat
the
FJe01
of
their Parents,
fa
foon
as
they
''ere
dea-d;
accoun-:
ting
it
a
part of their
refpect
and duty
to
bury
an~ in~omb t~em
':'ithiry
tbeir
own
Entrails,
which
they boiled, or
roafied,
according
to
the quanrny;
if
the
body
was lean
and extenuated , they
boiled
the flefh to
make
it
the
mdre tenper;
and
if
it
wer~
grofs and
fle(hy,
then
it
was
roafied
~
and
for
the
bones.,
they
buriec{
them with fome Ceremony,
either
in
the holes of
Rocks,
or the hollow Trees:
hut chis forr ofPeople know no Gods, nor adoi;e
any
tl~iog,
aBd
imhabic fur
the
rnoft part
in
the hotter, and not
~n
colder Regions
of
thi~
Continent,;
~n
t_he more
cold
and barren
Countries,
where the earth
is
not
(o
fruitfull;
peteffity
cornpelts
them to
fm.~
Mayz,
which is
their
Indian
Wheat,, and ocher
f?r5
ofpulfe
or
grain 1
but
they dHHnguHh
neither
times,
nor
feaf
ons for
it~
and m their
,fifhing
ana
fowling,
and in
all
other
things
the
like
barbarity
of
manners
predoniina!es.
As
to their manner
of
Cloathing,
the modefty
of
an Hiftorian obligeili
m~
ra!
ther
to
pa!S
it
by,
than
to defcribe
it,
lefl:
I
iliould
feem offenfive
to
diaif
and
modeft
Ears: but
to
expre{S
it
with as
much
decency
as
I am
able>
we
are to
know, that the
Indians
in the firft ages
wore no
other
covering
than
the
Skins
which
Nature gave them. Some perhaps of them for
cur~ofity ~
Ol'
affeCtation;
girt
themfelves about
the
Wafie
wirh
a clout of courfe
thread,
whim
they efieer
tned
a
Cloathing
fufficient
for them.
I remember, that in the Y
.ear
1570.
wheR
I came into
New
Spain,
that I
met
in
the
fireets
of
Cartt:tgena
with five
Jndi.anI,
all
naked,
w~lking
one after
th~
other,
like fo
many
Cranes, fo
lqtle
had
the
conver·..
fation
~nd
fociety
of the
Spaniards
in
fo
long
a time prevailed
to
the
alceration
of
their Hun:iours,
Manners
or
Barqarity.
· .
,
The
Women
wear
no other garments
than
the Men; onely
the
marriefJ
Wives
girc a
firing
about
them
to
\\'hich they
fallen a clout'
of
Cotton~
a yard
fquare;
like
an Apron, and
where
they cannot or
will
not
learn to weave,
they
cover
their
nakednefs
with
the
rine or broad
leaves of trees. The Maidens
alfo
w«ar
fomerhing
girt
about them, to which they
addifome
other mark,
as a fign of theif
Virginity. Modefly forbids
us to
enlarge farther·
on this
Subje&,
it
be.irig fuffici–
ent what we have
declared ,
that in
hot
Co\lntl'ies
they
went naked, without
?ther
covering,
dr
ornament,
than that which Nature furoifhes
to
brute Beafrs;
whence
we may
imagine
how
barbarous
thofe
h1.dian1
were before
the
times
in
\vhich the
Incas
gained
a Sovereignty over
them. . ·
In
C<?lder
Countries
they ufed Garments,
not
fot:
modefly,
or
decency,
out
f:oi
rtecefficy to defend
them
from
the
cold:
their
cle)athing was
.commonly
with
th~
Skins of beafis,
and with a fort ofMatt, which they wove with
firaw
.or~ mfheS:
Other
Nations
of
them, who had more
ingenuity, wore
a fort
of Mancles ,_ lll
~~e, ~nd
fpua
'~ith
a coorfe thread, and
worfe
woven
~ith
wool,
ot
wild hemp;
'Yh1ch they call
cbahuar;
and fome
ornament about their
necks ,
and a
covering
abo~t .the~r wa~es,,
was all_ the
cloathing
which their
?Jftoms
and manners
required.;_
~nd
m
this
habit
the
Spamatd5
found
thofe
Jndi@s,
over ''
h(i)tn the
ln§ai
had
not
extended their
Dominion~
and which
even to
this
day
coQtimies amongft
thcml:
fo~
th_ey
have
_fuch an averfion to
garments> that
even thofe who
live
familiarly
With
t~e
Spaniards, and
are
their domefHck Servants,
are
rather
forced by
im–
po~mty
to ufe them, than that they chu[e them out of inclination, or
any
confi–
derat1on
ofdecency or
modefiy;
the like
humour is
alfo
common
to
the Women ..,
fo
that
~e
Spaniard.t
u[e
in je(l: to tell them that they were bad Spmflers,
and
t~
ask
them
whether they
would
not
cloath
themfelves becaufe
they would not
fpin
or
w0uki
not fpin bec:au[e
t:hey
would
nor be
cloathed.-
'
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