ULLOA*S VOTAGE TO SOUTH AMERICA. 



519 



to denote every man's gettings ; the other is a bone in the manner of a die, cut with 

 feven faces, one of which has a particular mark, and is called euayro. The other five 

 tell according to the number of them, and the laft is a blank. The way of playing is 

 only to tofs up the bone; and the marks on the upper furface are fo many got. But 

 the guayro goes for ten ; and the like number is loft if the blank fide appears. Though 

 this game is peculiar to the Indians, it is very little ufed except at their revels. 



The common food of the Indians, as before obferved, is maize made into camcha or 

 mote, and machca ; the manner of preparing the latter is, to roaft the grain, and then 

 reduce it to a flour ; and this, without any other apparatus or ingredient, they eat by 

 fpoonfuls : two or three of which, and a draught of chicha, or, when that is wanting, 

 of water, completes their repaft. When they fet out on a journey, their whole viati- 

 cum is a little bag, which they call gucrita, full of this meal, and a fpoon. And this 

 fuffices for a journey of fifty or a hundred leagues. When hungry, or fatigued, they 

 flop at fome place where chicha is to be had, or at fome water ; where, after taking a 

 fpoonful of their meal into their mouth, they keep it fome time, in order the more eafily 

 to f wallow it ; and with two or three fuch fpoonfuls, well diluted with chicha, or, if 

 that is not to be had, with water, they fet forward as cheerfully as if rifen from a feaft. 



Their habitations, as may be imagined, are very fmall ; confifting of a little cottage, 

 in the middle of which is their fire-place. Here both they, and the animals they breed, 

 live promifcuoufly. They have a particular fondnefs for dogs ; and never are without 

 three or four little curs in their hut: a hog or two, a little poultry, and cuyes, with 

 fome earthen ware, as pots and jugs, and the cotton which their wives fpin, conftitute , 

 the whole inventory of an Indian*s efFe£ts. Their beds confift of two or three fheep- 

 ikins, without pillows or any thing elfe ; and on thefe they Deep in their ufual fquatting 

 pofture : and as they never undrefs, appear always in the fame garb. 



Though the Indian women breed fowl and other domeftic animals in their cottages, 

 they never eat them : and even conceive fuc*h a fondnefs for them that they will not 

 even fell them, much lefs kill them with their own hands ; fo that if a ftranger, who is • 

 obliged to pafs the night in one of their cottages, offers ever fo much money for a fowl, 

 they refufe to part with it, and he finds himfelf under the necefiity of killing the fowl 

 himfelf. At this his landlady fhrieks, diifolves in tears, and wrings her hands, as if it 

 had been an only fon ; till, feeing the mifchief paft remedy, Ihe wipes her eyes, and 

 quietly takes what the traveller ofl^ers her. 



Many of them in their journeys take their whole family with them ; the women car- 

 rying on their fhoulders fuch children as are unable to walk. The cottages in the mean 

 time are fhut up ; and there being no furniture to lofe, a ftring, or thong of leather, 

 ferves for a lock : their animals, if the journey is to laft for feveral days, they carry to 

 the cottage of fome neighbour or acquaintance: if otherwife, their curs are left guar- 

 dians of the whole ; and thefe difcharge their truft with fuch care, that they will fly at 

 any one, except their mafters, who offers to come near the cottage. And here it is 

 worth obferving, that dogs bred by Spaniards and Meftizos have fuch a hatred to the 

 Indians, that, if one of them approaches a houfe where he is not very well known, they 

 fall upon him, and, if not called off, tear him to pieces : on the other hand, the dogs of 

 Indian breed are animated with the fame rage againft the Spaniards and Meftizos j and, 

 like the former, fcent them at a diftance. 



The Indians, except thofe brought up in cities or towns, fpeak no language but their 

 own, called Quichua, which was eftablifhed by the Yncas, with an order for its being 

 propagated all over the vaft empire,' that all their fubjeds might be able to underftand 

 each other j and therefore was diftinguijfhed by the name of the Yncas language. 



1 1 Some 



