Chapter ii 

 SOME OF THEIR MANY EXTRAVAGANCIES. 



Many were the rare, extravagant, and ridiculous practices which 

 these Indians had, and therefore in addition to those mentioned in the 

 proper place, I shall relate some of these which appear especially 

 ridiculous and singular, everything being derived from the stories and 

 fables with which they are imbued from the time they are small 

 children, so that they are brought up full of fear, and for this reason 

 anything whatsoever fills them with dread, and since they were so rude 

 with such sluggish understanding, they were not able to distinguish or 

 deduce that which is true from that which is false, but continually ad- 

 hered to that which the old people told them, and for this reason are 

 seen so many extravagant and ridiculous things among them. 



They had the notion when buzzards were flying about, if the shadow 

 of the buzzard passed close by, of immediately covering themselves, 

 and they still cover their heads, chiefly the young women do, for they 

 believe that if the shadow of the buzzard would touch their heads, 

 sores would cbme out on them, such as scalled-head and other similar 

 [sores]. 



There was another rare and singular practice among these Indians, 

 and it was that the deer hunters or hunters of deer could not eat of 

 the deer which they killed, for they were of the belief that if they ate 

 of the game which they themselves killed, they would not kill any 

 more, and the fishermen had this same idea and never ate of the fish 

 which they themselves caught. But the most singular practice was that 

 in the case of the youths, when they went to hunt cottontail rabbits, 

 groundsquirrels, or deer, one of them could not go alone, and there- 

 fore at least 2 of them went [together], for he who killed the game 

 could not eat of it, but this was not for the above mentioned reason 

 [that the eater will not be able to kill any more game] , but for another 

 reason [that the eater will sicken], which was that if one of the un- 

 married men were to get a cottontail rabbit or some other animal and 

 were to eat it by himself hiddenly. in a few days he would start feeling 

 pains in his body and start wasting away, getting thin like a hectic 

 person, and for this reason they always went in company, and what one 

 killed the other one ate. swapping their game ; but it is to be noted that 

 in order that this effect be produced, the eating has to be in secret, for 

 if it was in public on the general [expeditions] when all the people 

 went along, though they ate of the same game that they had killed, 



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