h
water and drank by the relations of the deceased. Every man was
contented with one wife; but these physicians had usually two or three
each, who lived together very amicably. When a man engages to marry the
daughter of another, he gives her all he possesses, and sends to the
father of his bride every thing he kills, and in return his diet is sent
him from the house of his father-in-law, as he is not permitted to enter
the house during the first year of the marriage. Should his
father-in-law or any of the brothers of his wife meet him during that
time, they always look down and pass on without speaking; yet in that
period the woman converses freely with the father or other relations of
her husband. These customs are observed both in the island of _Mal-hado_
and through all the country of Florida for fifty leagues inland. When a
son or brother dies, the people of the house will rather starve than go
in quest of any thing to eat during three months, in all which time the
relations of the family send in all that is necessary for their
sustenance. Owing to this, several families in Mal-hado were in great
straits while the Spaniards resided among them, as many had died and the
survivors strictly observed the custom. The houses in the island were of
mats, and strewed with oyster shells, on which they lay at night stark
naked round the fire. The inhabitants of the province of
_Tegesta_[136], reaching from the Martyrs to Cape Cannaveral, feed
better than those Indians among whom Cabeza resided, being
extraordinarily expert fishers. Two of them will venture out in a small
canoe to attack, whales when any are seen upon the coast. One of them
steers or paddles the canoe; while the other, being provided with two or
three stakes and a mallet, leaps into the sea as soon as he sees a whale
rise to the surface, gets upon its head, and immediately drives one of
the stakes into one of the spiracles or blowing holes by which the whale
breathes. The whale immediately dives to the bottom; and when forced to
come up again to breathe, he repeats the operation and plugs up the
other spiracle, so that it cannot get breath and is soon suffocated.
When the whale dies, they fasten a line of withes or twisted branches to
its neck, and tow it to the shore, where it serves a long while for them
to feed upon.

[Footnote 135: So called by the translator of Herrera, but perhaps these
were a kind of priests or conjurers.--E.]

[Footnote 136: In some m