The Pipe Was Thrust Between My Teeth, And The
Din Went On:
Ha ha!
U u! o o! au au! This feast lasted three nights
and two days, but the music was not varied, and neither man nor woman
seemed to sleep or rest. Food was cooking at the different fires,
attended by the women, but my share was only a roasted fox's head!
The animal was laid on the wood, with skin, head and legs still
attached, and the whole was burnt black. I was very hungry, and ate
my portion thankfully. Christopher North said: "There's a deal of
fine confused feeding about a sheep's head," and so I found with the
fox's. Truly, as the Indian says, "hunger is a very big man."
At these feasts a drum, made by stretching a serpent's skin over one
of their clay pots, is loudly beaten, and the thigh-bone of an
ostrich, with key-holes burned in, is a common musical instrument.
From the algarroba bean an intoxicating drink is made, called ang-
min, and then yells, hellish sounds and murderous blows inspire
terror in the paleface guest. "It is impossible to conceive anything
more wild and savage than the scene of their bivouac. Some drink till
they are intoxicated, others swallow the steaming blood of
slaughtered animals for their supper, and then, sick from
drunkenness, they cast it up again, and are besmeared with gore and
filth."
After the feast was over I held a service, and told how sin was
injected into us by the evil spirit, but that all are invited to
the heavenly feast.
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