a chief, and
the son or brother a slave--and worse, even a slave to his own brother.

119. Their manner of life and ordinary conduct from the days of old
is trade, in all sorts of things by wholesale, and more by retail
in the products of the earth, in accordance with what is produced
in each district. The maritime peoples are great fishers with net,
line, and corral. The people who live inland are excellent farmers and
hunters. They are always cultivating rice, besides other vegetables
and garden products, quite different from those of Europa. The women
also are shrewd in trading, especially of their weaving, needlework,
and embroideries, which they make very neatly; and there is scarcely
one who cannot read and write. Sometimes the husband and wife go
together on their trading, and, whether for this or for any other
thing, she must always go ahead; for it is not their custom to go
together. Even if it be a band wholly made up of men or of women,
or of men and women mixed, and even if the road be very wide, they
go in single file one after the other.

120. The maritime peoples were accustomed to make many raids,
and those of the interior to set ambushes for such depredations,
wasting life in this. Their weapons consisted of bow and arrow;
a spear with a short handle, and a head shaped in innumerable ways,
most often with harpoon points; other spears without any head, with
the point made on the shaft itself (which is now of bamboo and now
of wood), a vara long, hardened in fire. They had swords; large,
sharp daggers, made very beautifully; and slender, long blowpipes
[ceruatanas], through which they shot most dangerous poisoned arrows,
in the manner of the inhabitants of Samatra. Such are their offensive
weapons. Their defensive weapons are wooden shields and rattan or
corded breastplates, and other armor helmets of the same material.

121. What justice, what fidelity, what honesty should there be amid
so great cruelty and tyranny? Virginity and purity were ignominious,
which is the general vice of idolaters. Whether married or single,
the woman who had no lover could not be safe; and by regarding that
as an honor, they considered it a dishonor to give their persons
free. When men children were born in certain provinces, the mothers
themselves performed on them a certain form of circumcision, quite
different from that of the Jews and Moros, and only in order to render
them more skilful in their lewdness. Yet with al