I had hardly got out o f fight, before I heard their cries and
lamentations ; and me eting them a few hours afterward,
I found they had painted the lower part o f their faces per-
fe<Et black.
T h e other opportunity I had o f obferving thefe ceremonies,
was in the cafe o f an ordinary p e r fo n ; when, on
hearing fome m ournful female cries iflue from a miferable
lo o k in g hut, I ventured into it, and found an old woman
w ith her daughter, weeping over the body o f an elderly
man, who had but juft expired, being ftill warm. T h e
firft ftep the y took, was to cover the body w ith cloth,
after w hich, ly in g down by it, they drew the cloth over
themfelves, and then began a mou rnfu l kind o f fong,
frequen tly repeating, Aweb medoaah! Aweb tanee! Oh my
father ! Oh m y h u fb an d ! A youn ger daughter was alfo
at the fame time ly in g proftrate, in a corner o f the houfe,
covered over with black cloth, repeating the fame words.
On lea vin g this melancholy fcene, I found at the door a
number o f their neighbours collected together, and liften-
in g to their cries with profound filence. I was refolved not
to mifs this opportunity o f feeing in what manner they dif-
pofe o f the bod y ; and therefore, after fatisfying m y felf,
before I went to bed, that it was not then removed, I gave
orders, that the fentries ihould w a lk backward and forward
before the houfe, and, in cafe they fufpe&ed any meafures
w ere tak in g fo r the removal o f the body, to giv e me im mediate
notice. However, the fentries had not kept a good
look-out, for in the morning I found the body was gone.
On inquiring, what they had done with it ? T h e y pointed
toward the f e a ; indicating, mod probably, thereby, that it
had been committed to the deep, or perhaps that it had
been carried beyond the bay, to fome burying-ground in
another
another part o f the country. T h e Chiefs are interred in the ^ 9 -
Morais,, or Herec-erees, w ith the men facrificed on the occa- ' .—
lion, b y the fide o f them ; and we obferved, that the Moral,
where the C h ie f had been buried, who, as I have already
mentioned, was k illed in the cave, after fo ftout a refiftance,_,
w a s h u n g round w ith red cloth.
V o n . III. Z A V O Y A G E