The people of this province of Arma are of middle height, and all dark coloured, insomuch that in colour all the Indian men and women of these parts (where there is such a multitude of people as scarcely to be numbered, and so wide an extent of country) appear as if they were all children of one father and mother. The women of these Indians are the ugliest and dirtiest that I have seen in all these parts. Both men and women go naked, except that, to conceal their shame, they put a bit of cloth in front, a _palmo_ broad, and a _palmo_ and a half long, with which they cover themselves in front; for the rest they go quite naked. Some of the women go shorn, as do their husbands.
The fruits and other provisions they have are maize and _yucas_,[220] besides many other nourishing roots, some _guayavas_,[221] _paltas_,[222] and palms of the _Pixiuares_. The chiefs marry those women they most fancy, keeping one of them as the principal wife. The other Indians marry daughters and sisters of their neighbours without any order, and few find their wives to be virgins. The chiefs may have many wives, other men have one, two, or three, according to their means. When they die, the chiefs are buried in their houses, or on the heights of the mountains with the usual ceremonies and mourning. The sons succeed their fathers in the chieftainship, and in their houses and lands. Failing a son, the heir is the son of the sister, and not of the brother. Further on I will relate the reason of this custom of the nephew who is son of the sister, and not he who is son of the brother, inheriting, in the greater part of these provinces, according to what I have heard from many of the natives. The Indians are so fond of eating human flesh, that they have been seen to take women on the point of bringing forth, quickly open their bellies with knives of stone or cane, and take out the child; then, having made a great fire, they toast and eat it, together with the mother, and all is done with such rapidity that it is a thing to marvel at. For these sins, and for others that these Indians commit, Divine Providence has ordained that, though they are so widely separated from our region of Spain as to make it appear almost impossible to go from the one place to the other, yet that roads and ways over the mighty ocean should be opened to these lands, where only ten or fifteen Christians together conquer and subdue one thousand to ten thousand of these Indians. I do not believe, however, that this arises from our merits, for we are indeed great sinners; but because God chooses to punish these people by our means, and therefore permits these events to happen as they do.