432 APPENDIX. 
their food. From day-break till dark, the women are busily employed in 
this last occupation. Soon as a boiler of the horse-flesh is cooked, it is taken 
from the fire and served to the Indians, sitting on their beds: every one has 
his earthen dish, out of which he eats and drinks; and if there should be any 
left after the men have done eating, the women make a repast in a separate 
corner of the toldo. The boiler is again put over the fire and filled, — cook ed, 
and eaten; and the repetition of the same continues so long as they have 
light. The Indians in their toldos are very hospitable: always when we 
visited the toldos they took care to have beef and mutton for us; which food 
they eat only in time of famine, or when they can procure no other. 
The toldo of an Indian is a species of tent formed by a few stakes made fast 
in the ground, and covered with skins. The fire is in the centre; and at one 
side of the toldo the Indians sleep in little stalls on beds of sheep-skins, 
whilst their women occupy the other side in a similar manner. The Indians 
are as silent and pensive in their toldos, as they are noisy and turbulent in 
their public meetings and councils. They will sit on their beds for an hour 
without uttering a syllable, wrapt in some profound meditation, or plucking 
the beard from their faces with silver tweesers which they carry for that 
purpose, never permitting any hair to grow on their faces or bodies. Every 
Indian has absolute power over the lives and actions of his women and slaves ; 
his daughters are also at his disposition ; but they are accountable for their 
conduct towards their sons, soon as they have passed the state of childhood. 
If a woman is unfaithful to her owner, or even mistrusted by him of having 
other attachments, he is generally her executioner, ending her life with his 
own hand. When an Indian is first married, he gives a feast to the relations 
of the bride and his own friends ; but all the after-marriages are considered 
merely as commercial transactions. Polygamy is allowed amongst them, each 
being permitted as many wives as he can purchase. 
The Indians, owing to the simplicity of their lives, enjoy excellent health ; 
diseases are so unfrequent amongst them that they do not acknowledge the 
existence of any natural distemper. Whenever an Indian is afflicted with 
any sickness at a premature age and dies, the soothsayers, who are also their 
physicians, impute the malady to some enemy of the deceased, who is sup- 
posed to have the power of magic or witchcraft; and if their science of pro- 
phecy should enable them ‘to discover who the wizard is, he suffers an 
immediate death. When an Indian dies, his best horse, saddle, spurs, sword, 
and lance, are buried with him in a pit; and if he should have a wife 
more dearly beloved than the rest, she accompanies him in his transit to a 
