INDIAN HOME LIFE. 99 



Meyong, and a few more of the ungodly — who had 

 amused themselves by tickling the ears of the choris- 

 ters with straws and palm-leaves, in vain attempt to 

 upset their gravity — improved the hours so assiduous- 

 ly in imbibing the new rum furnished by the husband 

 of the departed, that the morning light saw them 

 thoroughly fuddled. The whole settlement attended, 

 old men and women and children, even to babes at 

 the breast. The expense to the bereaved husband 

 must have been great ; and his reflection upon this 

 fact, coupled with the equally saddening one that the 

 wife of his bosom would never again labor for him 

 in the garden, or relieve him of the burden of 

 domestic duties, must have caused him to regret her 

 departure. 



Eight months later, I was in the island of Saint 

 Vincent, in latitude thirteen, north, two degrees and 

 a half south of Dominica. Here reside (with those of 

 the latter island) the only remaining Caribs north ot 

 South America. While those of Dominica speak a 

 perverted French, these speak an equally corrupt 

 English. The former are Roman Catholic in their 

 faith; the latter, Church of England. Two weeks I 

 lived with these Caribs, in a little wattled hut thatched 

 with leaves, which was given up to me by a young 

 colored man who had recently married a Carib wife. 



In St. Vincent, the Caribs made their last stand 

 against the English, in the latter part of the last 

 century, and there are more abundant evidences of 

 ancient occupation, and the traditions are better pre- 

 served than in Dominica. It was for the purpose of 

 securing a vocabulary of their ancient language, to 

 compare with one I had formed in Dominica, and to 



