APPENDIX.] WEST INDIES. 125 



" between your eyes for the dead"% Among the heathens 

 however the same ceremonies were still continued ; for in Sa- 

 maria, in the days of Ahab, king of Israel, it is recorded of 

 the prophets of Baal that, in worshipping their idol " tli^u 

 " cried aloud and cut themselves after their manner with 

 " knives and lances till the blood gushed out upon thcm"\ 

 At this day the islanders of the South sea express grief and la- 

 mentation for the dead in the very same manner. 



But perhaps the instance the most apposite and illustrative, 

 was the habit among the Charaibes of chewing the. betele t pre- 

 paring it with calcined shells precisely after the manner of the 

 Indians in the east; a circumstance, which, though recorded 

 by P. Martyr, || had escaped my researches, until it was pointed 

 out to me by Mr. Long. Some other resemblances, almost 

 equally striking, might be collected ; but the reader will pro- 

 bably think that more than enough has already been said on a 

 subject, the investigation of which he may perhaps deem a 

 mere matter of idle curiosity, neither contributing to the im- 

 provement of science, nor the comfort of life. 



Here then I conclude. An attempt to trace back the Cha- 

 raibes of the West Indies to their progenitors, the first emigrants 

 from the ancient hemisphere, in order to point out, with any 

 degree of precision or probability, the era of their migration, 

 were (like the voyages 1 have been describing) to venture on a 

 vast and unknown ocean without a compass; and even with- 

 out one friendly star to guide us through the night of con- 

 jecture. 



J Deut. c. xiv. v. i. 



i Kings, c. xviii. v. 28. 



H Decad, vi i, c. vi. 



