hungry, but that they would take us to some dwellings of theirs near by. That night we reached a place with fifty lodges, where the people were astonished to see us and were very afraid. After their fear of us subsided, they touched our faces and bodies and then ran their hands along their own faces and bodies. That is how we spent the night.

In the morning they brought their sick people to us, asking us to bless them. They gave us what they had to eat, which was prickly pear leaves and roasted green prickly pears. Since they treated us very well and gladly and willingly shared with us what they had, they themselves doing without so that they could give to us, we stayed with them several days. While we were there, others arrived from further away. When these were leaving, we told the first ones that we wanted to leave with them. They were very sad about this and insistently begged us to stay. Finally we said good-bye to them and left them weeping over our departure, because it caused them great sorrow.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

About the Customs of the Indians of That Land

From the Isle of Misfortune to this land, all the Indians we encountered have the custom of not sleeping with their wives from the time they first notice they are pregnant until the child is two-years old. The children nurse at the breast until they are twelve years old, when they can look for food for themselves. When we asked them why they brought them up this way, they replied it was because of the great hunger in that land. When we were there, we saw them go two or three, sometimes even four days without food. For this reason