THE PAMPAS INDIANS. 



unusual,) they consider that some enemy has pre- 

 vailed upon the evil spirit to kill their friend, and 

 they assemble to determine who this enemy can be. 

 They then denounce vengeance against him. These 

 disputes have very fatal consequences, and have 

 the political effect of alienating the tribes from one 

 another, and of preventing that combination among 

 the Indians which might make them much more 

 dreaded by the Christians. 



They believe in a future state, to which they 

 conceive they will be transferred as soon as they 

 die. They expect that they will then be constantly 

 drunk, and that they will always be hunting ; and 

 as the Indians gallop over their plains at night, 

 they will point with their spears to constellations 

 in the Heavens, which they say are the figures of 

 their Ancestors, who, reeling in the Firmament, are 

 mounted upon horses swifter than the wind, and 

 are hunting ostriches. 



They bury their dead, but at the grave they 

 kill several of their best horses, as they believe that 

 their friend would otherwise have nothing to ride. 

 Their marriages are very simple. The couple to 

 be married, as soon as the sun sets, are made to lie 



