36 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 92 



quiver, bow, and arrows, and well painted up, the chief and the 

 Puplem being dressed in their vestments, which were the little skirt 

 of feathers and the crown on the head, and with the rest of the body 

 painted with a dye of hematite and black, and the rest of them 

 being in their natural dress, which was in their bare skins, but well 

 sooted up so that they resembled devils more than men, all went one 

 behind another, commencing with the chief and following in order, 

 running, and as each one arrived in front of the Vanquex, before 

 the Chinigchinix [figure] and the figure which was on the ground, he 

 gave a jump with a half turn, like a kind of a skip, and a loud cry, 

 raising his bow and arrow as if shooting in the air, and in this 

 manner all of them passed by, performing the same ceremony. The 

 most amazing thing about it was that when they gave the half turn 

 they turned their backs to the Chinigchinix [figure], or better .said 

 their butts, surely a ridiculous thing, and the subject which they 

 venerated merited nothing less. The women after the men had 

 passed by also went one behind another, but slowly, and on arriving 

 [at the place] each of them made an obeisance like a half bow 

 with her body, showing the traybasket or tools which she was carry- 

 ing. And this ceremony they performed in order that that horrible 

 painting might preserve them from all ill, notably from stumbling 

 over rocks, tripping over burrows, so that the limbs of trees would 

 not fall upon them, and from other similar accidents. 



Great was the veneration and respect which these Indians had 

 for their temple, for rather than have the slightest irreverence be 

 committed in it, no one save the chiefs and Puplem, or elders, 

 entered within it (that is, on the feast days) ; the other people re- 

 mained outside of the stakework, and the boys and girls did not 

 even approach it. They did not speak inside it, except what was 

 very necessary and that in a low voice, and also those who were 

 outside observed silence. Inside the temple there was dancing, but 

 only by the chief and some other one of the Puplem, and this in the 

 dress of Chinigchinix, making in front of him a thousand odd and 

 ridiculous maneuvers. The position which they assumed when 

 before the Chinigchinix [figure] inside the Vanquex was sitting 

 on the ground with their buttocks on or to one side of their heels 

 (this position has always caused me much wonder — for the Devil, 

 who wishes to be honored and venerated like the true God, taught 

 them the ugliest, most indecent and ridiculous way of worshipping 

 him which can be imagined— to be in a squatting position some 

 Indians whose dress was to go naked), and in this fashion they re- 



