4o6 A VOYAGE TO Book VI, 



pany, at all entertainments ; and drink like the refl:, 

 till the chicha has quite overcome them. It is worth 

 notice, that the Indian women, whether maids or mar- 

 ried, and alfo the young men before they are of an ag^ 

 to contra<ft matrimony, entirely abftain from this vice; 

 it being a maxim among them, that drunkennefs is 

 only the privilege of mafters of families, as being per- 

 fons who, when they are unable to take care of them^ 

 felves, have others to take care of them. 



Their manner of celebrating any folemnity is too 

 fingular to be omitted : the perfon who gives the en- 

 tertainment invites all his acquaintance, and provides 

 chicha fufficient for the number of his guefts, at the 

 rate of a jug for each ; and this jug holds about 

 two gallons. In the court of the houfe, if it be a 

 large town, or before the cottage, if- in a village, a 

 table is placed and covered with a tucuyo carpet, only 

 ufed on fuch fefcivities. The eatables confift wholly 

 of camcha, and fome wild herbs boiled. When the 

 gueds meet, one or two leaves of thefe herbs, with ten 

 or twelve grains of camcha, finifn the repaft. Im- 

 mediately the women prefent themfelves with cala^ 

 bafhcs or round totumos, called pilches, full of chicha, 

 for their hufbands j and repeat it till their fpirits are 

 raifed : then one of them plays on a pipe and tabor, 

 v/hiiil others dance, as they call it, though it is no 

 more than moving confufedly from one fide to the 

 other, without miCafure or order. Some of the beft 

 voices among the Indian v;omen fing in their own 

 language. Thus their mirth continues while kept 

 up by the liquor, which, as I have faid before, is the 

 foul of all their meetings. Another odd circumftance 

 is, that thofe who do not dance, fquat themfelves 

 dovvn in their ufual pofture, till it comes to their turn. 

 The table ferves only for flate, there being nothing on 

 it to eat, nor do the guefts fit down at it. When tired 

 with intemperance, they all lay down together, withr 

 Qut minding whether near the wife of another, or their 



o\yn 



