Origin of the American Nation* $ 12 J 



hair; for in this condition they dare not appear in public. 

 Among the men. (having the beard is ufual ; as was the cafe 

 with the ambaflador from the Turkiih fukan Bajazet to 

 Tamerlane. 



4* DeJIroy'nig the Habitations and Huts of the dece'afed, 



The antient Moguls were accuftomed to tear to pieces and 

 deftroy the tents of their deceafed officers. The prefent Mo- 

 guls, alio, when their chan or his principal confort dies, if they 

 are private perfons, abandon their habitations; and the chief 

 of the tribe leaves his camp, and never fuflfers himfelf to ba 

 feen during the whole period of mourning. Among the Te- 

 leugutians, the huts of the deceafed are deftroyed. The Ja- 

 kutians formerly removed from the huts in which any one 

 died, and entirely abandoned them. The Telengutians are a 

 race of the Urats or Oelots, who together are called Cal- 

 inucks; and the Jakutians, as far as can be concluded from 

 their language, are of Tartar extraction. Both of them may 

 have inherited this cuitom from the Moguls. The Perfians 

 have an averfion to the habitations in which their fathers 

 have died, and never approach them. No one, alfo, will re- 

 fide in the houfes or palaces of the great officers put to death 

 by order of the fovercign, or fchah ; for this would be con- 

 fidcred as an unfortunate omen of a fimilar fate ; and there- 

 fore fuch houfes generally ftand empty, and foon fall into 

 ruins. No fooner has a Laplander breathed his lad, than his 

 neighbours drag out the body and deftroy the hut, which 

 they afterwards abandon. On the death of the king of Whi- 

 dah, on the weftern coait of Africa, his palace is deftroyed, 

 and another, according to the tafte and pleafure of the new 

 fovereign, is erected. 



Among the Caribs it is cuftomary alfo to deftroy the hut 

 in which the father of a family has died, and to build another 

 in fome other place : nor does any one ever think of rebuild- 

 ing the former one. In Peru, the apartment inhabited by a 

 deceafed inca was clofed up by means of a wall. 

 . This averfion to the habitations of perfons deceafed arifes 

 from a fupcrftitious notion, prevalent among the pagans, that 

 the deceafed in the other world follow the fame occupations 

 which they exercifed during life, and that therefore they have 

 occafion for every thing they before poffefied. For this rea- 

 fon, their furniture, utenfils, and tools, are thrown into the 

 grave along with them. Should any of thefe articles be with- 

 drawn or withheld, the fpirit of the deceafed, according to 

 the idea of thefe people, would have no reft, but torment and 

 frighten the living by its appearance. They confequently 



choofe 



