Without Cutting Off Either Heads Or Legs, Or Pulling Out The Birds' Feathers, The Chickens Were Placed In The Pots

With water. Lying down near the fire, I, manlike, impatiently waited for supper. Perhaps a minute had dragged its weary

Length along when I picked up a stick from the ground and poked one of the fowls out of the water, which was not yet warm. Holding the bird in one hand, and pulling feathers out of my mouth with the other, I ate as my forefathers did ages ago. Years before this I had learned that a hungry man can eat what an epicure despises. After this feast I lay down on the ground behind one of the tepees, and, with my head resting on my most valued possessions, went to sleep.

Having promised to give the priest and his wife another present, I was awakened very early next morning. They had come for their gifts. Rising from my hard bed, I stretched myself and awoke my servant, under whose head were the looking-glasses. I presented one of these to the woman, who looked in it with satisfaction and evident pleasure. Whether she was pleased with her reflection or with the glass I cannot tell, but I feel sure it must have been the latter! A necklace to the daughter and a further gift to the old man gained their friendship, and food was brought to us. After partaking of this I was informed that the king desired to see me, and that I must proceed at once to his hut.

His majesty (?) lived on the other side of the river, close at hand. This water was of course unbridged, so, in order to cross, I was compelled to divest myself of my clothing and walk through it in nature's garb. The water came up to my breast, and once I thought the clothes I carried on my head would get wet. Dressing on the other side, I presented myself at the king's abode. There I was kindly received, being invited to take up my quarters with him and his royal family. The king was a tall man of somewhat commanding appearance, but, save for the loin cloth, he was naked, like the rest. The queen, a little woman, was as scantily dressed as her husband. She was very shy, and I noticed the rest of the inmates of the hut peeping through the crevices of the corn-stalk partition of an inner room. After placing around the shapely neck of the queen a specially fine necklace I had brought, and giving the king a large hunting-knife, I was regaled with roasted yams, and later on with a whole watermelon.

Timoteo, my servant, whose native language was Guarani, could understand most of the idiom of the Sun Worshippers, which we found to be similar to that spoken by the civilized inhabitants of the country. There must therefore have been some connection between the two peoples at one time.

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