42 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL, 92 



eluded, a sister or aunt or some other one of his closest female relatives, 

 single or married as long as she was a young woman, got up, stripped 

 herself naked before all those assembled, who were always many, 

 without exceptions of persons, and naked thus with her hands under- 

 neath her breasts she began to dance, giving turns back and forth in 

 front of all, offering herself to anyone that desired her. She alone 

 sang, and her song was confined to saying, that she was well, healthy, 

 that she was already a woman, and many brutal things. This dance 

 was danced inside the \'anquex, but the preceding one was danced 

 outside in another place. They had other dances and similar songs. 

 But through the mercy of God since they have become Christians they 

 are already abandoning them, or at least they do not execute them in 

 public as they were accustomed to in time of their gentility. 



