124 Conje&urcs refpeBlng the 



not marry princeffbs, bat the daughters of nairs ; and there* 

 fore their children are not princes, but nairs. The princeflea 

 ire generally given in marriage to bramins : all the children 

 produced by fuch marriages are princes, and capable of fuc- 

 ceeding to the throne. This princely race forms the royal 

 family, which takes the precedency of all the reft. After the 

 king's death, the oldeft prince always fucceeds him in the 

 trovernment. By this method, no difputes Strife in regard to 

 the fucceffion, and young fovereigns are never feen. In all 

 the countries inhabited by negroes, from Senegal to the Rio 

 Volta, the king is always chafes from the royal family ; but 

 his children are uniformly excluded from the fucceffion, which 

 in all cafes goes to the female branch. 



In America, and the ifland of Hayti, now called St. Do- 

 mingo, the principalities were hereditary; but when the 

 cacic died without heirs, his pofleffions devolved to his fitters* 

 children, to the exclufion of the brothers' cKAdren. 



On the death of the chief of the Iroquefe, his dignities al- 

 ways fall to the children of his mother's filter. 



Thefe cuftoms are followed alfo by the Hurons, the Natches, 

 and the Indians on the Miffiffippi. They fay that one can 

 depend with more certainty on the fitter's fon being of the 

 royal blood, than on the king's fon, or the fon of his brother. 



%. Interring the Dead, 



We find inftances both in antient and modern hiftory of 

 wives and (laves being interred along with the body of a 

 deceafed prince or great man. Herodotus, fpeaking of the 

 Scythians on the Boryfthenes (Dnieper), fays, that on the 

 death of their king, one of his concubines, his cup-bearer, 

 cook, purveyor, valet, &cc. together with horfes and golden 

 cups, were interred along with him. We are told the fame 

 thing by Lucian. The Romans, at the funerals of great 

 men, (acrificed a number of prifoners, who were obliged to 

 fight in fingle combat till none of them remained. Caefar 

 relates, that among the Gauls, the Soldurii fhared with their 

 patrons in all the conveniences of life and the bitternefs of 

 Scath. In another place he fays, that the cuftom of burning 

 the Servants and deareft clients of great men at their funerals^ 

 together with other things, had ceafed not long before that 

 period. The antient Danes, to (how their refpeft for the 

 dead, caufed wives to be buried alive with their hufbands. 

 We are aflured by Dalin the hifiorian, that the fame practice 

 prevailed alfo in old Sweden. We are informed by De 

 Guignes that it wascuftomary amongthe Honi-Re, aTurkifh 

 nation, to inter with their hufbands thofe wives who had 



brought 



