ts or birds at which they aim. The Spaniards spent
several days amongst the abundance of the country. They traded four
needles for a peacock, only two for a pheasant, and one for a dove or
a turtle-dove. The same, or a glass bead, was given for a goose.
In making their offers and bargaining and disputing, the natives
conducted their commercial affairs just about the same as do our women
when they are arguing with pedlars. As they wore no clothes, the
natives were puzzled to know the use of needles, but when the
Spaniards satisfied their naive curiosity by showing them that needles
were useful for getting thorns from beneath the skin, and for cleaning
the teeth, they conceived a great opinion of them. Another thing which
pleased them even more was the colour and sound of hawk-bells, which
they were ready to buy at good prices.

From the native houses the roaring of large animals[4] was audible
amidst the dense and lofty forest trees, but these animals are not
fierce, for, although the natives constantly wander through the
woods with no other weapons than their bows and arrows, there is no
recollection of any one being killed by these beasts. They brought the
Spaniards as many deer and wild-boar, slain with their arrows, as the
latter desired. They did not possess cattle or goats or sheep, and
they ate bread made of roots and bread made of grain the same as the
islanders of Hispaniola. Their hair is black, thick, half curly, and
long. They try to spoil the whiteness of their teeth, for almost the
entire day they chew a herb which blackens them, and when they spit it
out, they wash their mouth. It is the women who labour in the fields
rather than the men, the latter spending their time in hunting,
fighting, or leading dances and games.

[Note 4: Supposed to have been tapirs, animals unknown in Europe.]

Pitchers, cups with handles, and pots are their earthenware utensils,
which they procure from elsewhere, for they frequently hold markets,
which all the neighbouring tribes attend, each bringing the products
of his country to be exchanged for those of other places. In fact,
there is nobody who is not delighted to obtain what is not to be had
at home, because the love of novelty is an essential sentiment
of human nature. They hang little birds and other small animals,
artistically worked in base gold,[5] to their pearls. These trinkets
they obtain by trade, and the metal resembles the German gold used for
coining florins.