Page:Narrative of the Proceedings of Pedrarias Davila (Haklyut, 34).djvu/123

Rh these provisions, and in some of them they also have aji and yucas. In Lili they do not eat the maize in the form of bread, but toasted or boiled, although they have stones on which to grind it. They make chicha; but their neighbours, who are the people of Atrinceta, eat their maize in the shape of loaves of bread, for which reason they are a stronger people than those of Lili.

These provinces have the same custom as those of Coiba and Cueva, of celebrating festivals every year for their dead. In these festivals those of one village united with those of another, or the followers of one chief with those of another, being friends, and ate and drank together, as is done in Coiba and Cueva. After dinner, in the evenings, they came out to play at tilting with reeds, a leader of one side with fifty to thirty men, and another with as many more, all with their shields well made and painted, and their darts, which are the arms they carry in this country. Having taken their places, they came out to skirmish, as the troopers do in Spain, darting at each other like enemies, and in this way they continued skirmishing, sallying forth and retreating in skirmishing order, during the whole afternoon. Many came out from the game wounded, and some were killed: and there was no penalty or ill feelings for him who killed another. In the houses of the chief of this province of Lili, they found, all round the principal room, skins of men, as many as would fit into the room, flayed and stuffed with cinders, and set up aloft at a height of three or four estados. They were seated close to each other, with their arms placed in their hands as when living: and the men of war ate those whom they captured and killed, in token of victory.