FERjSTANDO ALARCHON A.D. 



1540. 



river. And hee shewed me by signes that the houses 

 were of wood compassed with earth without, and I under- 

 stood that they made a round house wherein the men Roimd houses, 

 and women lived all together. I asked him whether 

 their women were common or no : he tolde me no, and 

 that hee which was married, was to have but one wife 

 only. I desired to know what order they kept in marying: 

 and he told me, that if any man had a daughter to 

 marry, he went where the people kept, and said, I have 

 a daughter to marry : is there any man here that wil 

 have her } And if there were any that would have her, 

 he answered that he would have her : and so the mariage 

 was made. And that the father of him which would 

 have her, brought some thing to give the yong woman; 

 and from that houre forward the mariage was taken to 

 be finished, and that they sang & danced: and that when Dancing and 

 night came, the parents tooke them, and left them to- ^^^gi'^g at rna- 

 gether in a place where no body might see them. And 5/^!!^; 

 I learned that brethren, and sisters, and kinsfolks married 

 not together : and that maydes before they were married 

 conversed not with men, nor talked not with them, but 

 kept at home at their houses and in their possessions, [III. 432.] 

 and wrought : and that if by chance any one had com- 

 pany with men before she were maried, her husband 

 forsooke her, and went away into other Countreyes : and 

 that those women which fell into this fault, were accompted 

 naughty packs. And that if after they were maried, any 

 man were taken in adultery with another woman, they 

 put him to death : and that no man might have more 

 then one wife, but very secretly. They tolde mee that 

 they burned those which dyed : and such as remayned ^^0" ^^^^^ 

 widowes, stayed halfe a yeere, or a whole yeere before 

 they married. I desired to know what they thought of 

 such as were dead. Hee told me that they went to 

 another world, but that they had neither punishment 

 nor glory. The greatest sicknesse that this people dye 

 of, is vomiting of blood by the mouth : and they have 

 Physicions which cure them with charmes and blowing 



297 



their dead. 



