414. A VOYAGE TO Book VL 



It is not uncommon amons" them to cbano;e their 

 AV'ives, without any other prehmniary or agreement, 

 than having been familiar with the wife of another. 

 The former wife, together with the injured liusband, 

 concerta revenge ; and if reproached for such a pro- 

 ceeding, they cheerfully answer, that they had served 

 them only as they deserved ; and it avails little to se- 

 parate them, as they soon find means to return to 

 the same manner of living. Incests are very com- 

 mon among them, both as the consequence of their 

 monstrous drunkenness, already mentioned, and from 

 their making no distinction between honour and in- 

 famy, whereby their brutal appetites are under no 

 restraint. 



If the foregoing tempers or customs appear strange, 

 their behaviour at confession is not less so : for, besides 

 having but a slender acquaintance with the Spanish 

 language, they have no form to direct them in it. 

 On their coming to the confessor, which is always at 

 his summons, he is obliged to instruct them in what 

 they are going about, and with them repeat the Co7i- 

 Jiteor from one end to the other. For if he stops, 

 the Indian also remniis silent. Having gone through 

 this, it is not enough for the priest to ask him, whe- 

 ther he has committed this or that fault ; but if it be 

 one of the common sort, he must affirm that he has 

 committed it, otherwise the Indian would deny every 

 thing. The prie's-t further is obliged to tell him, that 

 he well knows he has committed the sin, and he has 

 proofs of it. Then the Indian, being thus pressed, an- 

 swers, with great astonishment, that it is so; and, 

 imagiuingthe priest really endiied with some super- 

 natural knowledge, adds circumstances which had not 

 been asked him. It is not only dillicult to bring them 

 to decliire'their faults, but even to keep them from 

 denying .them, tlioagh publicly committed, and equal- 

 ly so to prevail on tiiem to determine 'the number,; 

 this being only to be obtained by finesses; and then 



little 



