The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 35, July 1931 - April, 1932 Page: 43
348 p. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Diary of Fray Gaspar Jose De Solis, in the Year 1767-68 43
cordant cries, dancing with well sharpened knives in their hands.
As they jump around they approach the victim and cut a piece of
flesh off of his body, going to the fire and half roasting it in sight
of the victim, they eat it with great relish, and so they go on cut-
ting off pieces and quartering him until they take off all of the
flesh and he dies. They take off his hair with the scalp and put
it all on a pole in order to bring it to the dance as a trophy. They
do not throw the bones away but distribute them, and each one
whose turn it is to get one walks along sucking it until he is thus
finished. They do the same thing with the priests and Spaniards
if they catch any. Others they hang up by the feet and put fire
underneath them and so go on roasting them and eat them up.
For others they make long poles of the thickness of an inch of
resinous pine, of which there is a great deal, and set fire to them
and torture the victim with them, and afterwards they set fire to
him and half roast him and eat him up. For others they do not
use a knife to cut them to pieces but they tear them to pieces with
their teeth and eat them raw.
In the woods they live on horses, mules, mares, deer, since there
are many, bison which abound, bear, berrendos,7 wild boar, rabbits,
hares, dormice, and other quadrupeds, with snakes, vipers, wild
turkeys, geese, ducks, hens, partridges, cranes, quail and other birds
that are on the beach or on the banks and margins of the rivers,
with fish of all kinds, which abound.
In the missions they have bulls and cows. Corn is given them
which they cook for eating since they do not make tortillas for
lack of metates8 on which to grind them or comales9 on which to
cook them. These utensils are so scarce that one metate is worth
twenty-five pesos.
The Indians are very dirty, foul-smelling and pestiferous, and
they throw out such a bad ordor from their body that it makes
one sick. They love and enjoy foul-smelling and pestiferous
things, on account of which they delight in the ordor of the pole-
cat which they also eat. They make holes in the muscles of their
nose and the tips of their ears in order to hang beads in them,
also little shells, small conk shells from the sea, small stones of
various colors.
'berrendos: species of deer.
8metate: curved stone for grinding maize or cocoa.
ecomal: flat earthenware pan for cooking maize cakes.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 35, July 1931 - April, 1932, periodical, 1932; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101092/m1/47/: accessed March 29, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.