roceeded with great caution and secrecy and rigorously
enjoined those who had relations with them to do the same. If any
of those women died, she appointed an heir, and successor--to whom,
after she had been accepted and received, her idol was brought in
great silence by some chiefs, from the house of the dead person, in
the middle of the night. Then they celebrated a feast during three
continuous days, with banqueting and abundance of wine, which is their
greatest solemnity. The idol of the chief priestess was made of gold,
and she kept it in concealment, through the contrivance of the Devil
(who through it held close communication with her), in a part of her
house where it was most difficult to find it. It is estimated that
for two years this secret pestilence had been going on, tyrannizing
over the inhabitants to such a degree that there was hardly a sick
person whom they did not attend with all diligence--persuading
each one to demand urgently that they should cast lots to ascertain
whether the sick man were to live or die, and, consequently, whether
sacrifice should be offered to the anito for his health. We have
already explained the manner of sacrifices and offerings they made,
and the profit and gain which these infernal furies derived from
them. There was one woman among them who cleared, in the short time
that I have mentioned, almost three hundred escudos; but she did not
enjoy them long, for God would not allow the conflagration to spread
further. His Divine Majesty influenced some of his faithful ones, who,
all aflame with the greater conflagration of His honor and service,
hastened to give account of what they heard and saw and knew of this
matter. With the help of this information, beginning among the weaker
members of the band, in a short time they succeeded in discovering
those of secondary rank--and thus, step by step, they reached the chief
priestess herself. Their second care (which they put into execution)
was to take away from these people the idols, a great number of which
were seized. Some of these were of clay, others of wood; and two,
in particular, were made from two great teeth of the cayman, set in
gold, in which metal the head of the anito was shaped at the point of
the tooth. In neither the residence nor the country house of the head
priestess, however, could her idol be found; nor could it be discovered
by means of her, or by rummaging through her furniture and utensils,
and searching ofte