APPENDIX. 433 



more happy world, where her office is still to wait on him as a servant. 

 Immediately after the interment the tents are struck, and the tribe marches 

 in search of" a more hospitable habitation. 



Among the Indian tribes, crimes are not very frequent. They adhere 

 strictly to what they consider justice ; and any great innovation on, or vio- 

 lation of, their established customs is punished with death. A man who kills 

 any member of the society is given up to the friends of" the deceased, and 

 expiates his crime with his blood. This is the right of revenge, which is the 

 unquestionable privilege of every Indian ; and should it be denied him, a 

 civil war is generally the result, and the tribe becomes extinct. Though 

 they suppress theft, murder, &c. in their own tribes, he who commits the most 

 barbarous outrages on his enemies is considered most worthy of the respect 

 and applause of every member of his own society. 



There may be considered four orders of Indian society ; the caciques, 

 priesthood, captains, and people. They live together in the most perfect 

 equality and enjoyment of their customs. Their occupations are nearly the 

 same, except the priests' ; who at different times, and under different cir- 

 cumstances, exercise the various functions of priest, prophet, physician, 

 bard, &c. 



They compute their time by the lunar revolutions, and their distances by 

 days ; thus, two moons mean two months ; and the number of days between 

 one place and another, means the time in which an Indian can gallop from 

 one to the other, and gives them a tolerably exact idea of distance. Their 

 way of counting is complex and fatiguing. They begin by counting up to 

 ten (which they cannot exceed) ; then making a mark on their beads, or with 

 a piece of stick, they count other ten, which they mark in the same way, and 

 so continue to proceed to ten tens or 100, which is marked apart ; a fresh 

 score is begun, and continued to ten hundred or 1000, known by a different 

 mark. Their numeration seldom goes beyond 1000, and cannot exceed 

 10,000. A number of men or objects passing 10,000 is expressed amongst 

 them by the word Many. 



Their exercise or diversions are performed on horseback with their lances, 

 and are adapted to improve their strength and make them fit for war. They 

 have also an exercise which they perform on foot with a ball, not unlike 

 cricket. In all their exercises, diversions, and fetes, of whatever kind, they 

 are invariably naked. 



The dress of an Indian in winter is a poncho, a piece of rug wound 

 round his waist, like the chiripa of the peasants in this country, (i. e. Chile, 



3 K 



