Which speaketh of the Island of Gomera.
The fighting of the men of the island of Gomera is done with small rods
like arrows, sharp and burnt in the fire. They go about naked without
any clothes, and have little shame at it; for they make a mockery of
clothes, saying that they are but sacks in which men put themselves.
They have only a small amount of barley and the flesh of pigs and goats,
but little of all this. Their food is chiefly milk and herbs, like the
beasts, and the roots of rushes, and rarely meat; they eat dirty and
foul things such as rats, fleas, lice, and ticks, and consider them all
as good viands. They possess no houses, but live in holes and huts.
Their women are almost common, and when anyone cometh where another is,
at once the latter giveth him his woman by way of hospitality, and him
that doeth otherwise, they hold as a bad man.[N198] Wherefore the sons
do not inherit among them, but only their nephews, sons of their
sisters. The greater part of their time they spend in dancing and
singing, for their whole luxury consisteth in sport without work. They
place all their happiness in the commerce of the sexes, for they have no
teaching of a law, but only believe that there is a God. They will be
seven hundred fighting men, who have a duke and certain headmen.