261 
country, or in war, his friends carefully carry home the bones 
and render all the last honours to them. General Brady has 
informed us, that in the country of the Saccatawa he has fre- 
quently seen the children scraping the flesh from their parents’ 
bones with the same knife as they used to cut their food, and 
drying the bones and skulls at the same fire as is then em- 
ployed for the purposes of cookery. The family is half com- 
forted when the last remains of a dear friend can be recovered ; 
if, on the contrary, the fate of war or famine compels them 
to inter their dead in a foreign and distant land, they yield 
themselves up to despair, and regard this privation as the 
heaviest of their woes. In the latter case, they carefully 
mark the spot of interment, and provide themselves with relics 
of it, at the interval of many years. 
The diseases of the Huwa are few in number, and it is 
rare to see an infirm person: the mountainous situation of 
Emerina exempts it from the fevers so prevalent on the coast, 
and the natives often attain to extreme old age. Leprosy and 
small-pox are common, and scorbutic eruptions that cover 
the whole body. Formerly small-pox was very prevalent 
and committed great ravages, especially in 1817, when it car- 
ried off a large proportion of the native population; but since 
the introduction of vaccination it has almost disappeared. 
As to the leprosy, one sees, from time to time, individuals 
miserably affected by it, but they are few in number, and 
being separated from the rest of the people, it does not 
spread. Medicines, in this country, consist entirely of simples, 
either roots or herbs; plasters and unguents are unknown, 
and it is surprising how rapidly their*wounds close. Of sur- 
gery, they are still more ignorant; amputation, in a case of 
fracture or gangrene, is never heard of, and, consequently, 
death is speedily the result of these accidents. _ y 
Their amusements consist chiefly in dancing and sin ging 
accompanied by two or three instruments; their music is 
most methodical and very poor, at least it appears so to m 
Europzean ear, while they are passionately fond of Semuc, 
and a simple flute will move them even to tears, which they 
call malahela (sorrow). The instruments used by them are, 
