violent and unnatural motions
remains stiff and motionless, like a person in a fit of epilepsy. After
some time he comes to himself, as if having gained the victory over the
evil spirit. He next causes a faint shrill mournful voice to be heard
within his tabernacle, as of the evil spirit, who is supposed to
acknowledge himself vanquished; after which the wizard, from a kind of
tripod, answers all questions that are put to him. It is of little
consequence whether these answers turn out true or false, as on all
sinister events the fault is laid on the spirit. On these conjuring
occasions, the juggler is well paid by those who consult the destinies.

These southern nations make skeletons of their dead, as is done likewise
by the native tribes on the Orinoco; but it is singular that this
practice does not prevail among the intermediate tribes, that inhabit
between the Maranon and Rio Plata. On such occasions, one of the most
distinguished women of the tribe performs the ceremony of dissection.
The entrails are burnt, and the bones, after the flesh has been cut off
as clean as possible, are buried till the remaining fibres decay. This
is the custom of the Molnuches and Pampas, but the Serranos place the
bones on a high frame-work of canes or twigs to bleach in the sun and
rain. While the dissector is at work on the skeleton, the Indians walk
incessantly round the tent, having their faces blackened with soot,
dressed in long skin mantles, singing in a mournful voice, and striking
the ground with their long spears, to drive away the evil spirits. Some
go to condole with the widow and relations of the dead, if these are
wealthy enough to reward them for their mourning with bells, beads, and
other trinkets; as their customary condolence is not of a nature to be
offered gratuitously, for they prick their arms and legs with thorns,
and feel pain at least if not sorrow. The horses belonging to the
deceased are slain, that he may ride upon them in the _alhue-mapu,_ or
country of the dead; but a few of these are reserved to carry his bones
to the place of sepulchre, which is done in grand ceremony within a year
after his death. They are then packed up in a hide, and laid on the
favourite horse of the deceased, which is adorned with mantles,
feathers, and other ornaments and trinkets. In this manner the cavalcade
moves to the family burial-place, often three hundred leagues from the
place of death, so wide and distant are their wande