78 



CHAP. IV. 



Division of the Spoil ; Sacrljice after the War ; 

 Congress of Peace. 



. The spoils of war are divided among those who 

 have had the good fortune to take them. But 

 when the capture has been general^ they are dis- 

 tributed among the whole in equal parts, called 

 reg, so that no preference is shown to any of the 

 officers, nor even to the Toqui. The prisoners, 

 according to the custom of all barbarous nations, 

 are made slaves until they are exchanged or ran- 

 somed. 



According to the admapu, one of these unfor- 

 tunate men must be sacrificed to the manes of 

 the soldiers killed in the war. This cruel law, 

 traces of which are to be found in the annals of 

 almost allliations, is nevertheless very rarely put 

 in practice, but on^ or two instances having oc- 

 curred in the space of nearly two hundred years. 

 The Araucanians are sensible to the dictates of 

 compassion, although the contrary is alleged by 

 certain writers, who having assumed as an incon- 

 trovertible principle that they never give quarter 

 {o their enemies, afterwards contradict thera- 

 ielves in mcutioning the great number of Spanish 

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