1769. ROUND THE WORLD. 147 



Perhaps no better use can be made of reading an 

 account of manners altogether new, by which the 

 follies and absurdities of mankind are taken out of 

 that particular connection in which habit has recon- 

 ciled them to us, than to consider in how many in- 

 stances they are essentially the same. When an ho- 

 nest devotee of the church of Rome reads, that there 

 are Indians on the banks of the Ganges who believe 

 that they shall secure the happiness of a future state 

 bv dvino; with a cow's tail in their hands, he iau":hs 

 at their folly and superstition ; and if these Indians 

 were to be told, that there are people upon the 

 continent of Europe, who imagine that they shall 

 derive the same advantage from dying with the 

 slipper of St. Francis upon their foot, they would 

 laugh in their turn. But if, when the Indian heard 

 the account of the Catholic, and the Catholic that 

 of the Indian, each was to reflect, that there was 

 no difference between the absurdity of the slipper 

 and of the tail; but that the veil of prejudice and 

 custom, which covered it in their own case, was 

 withdrawn in the other, they would turn their know- 

 ledge to a profitable purpose. 



Flaving observed that bread-fruit had for some 

 days been brought in less quantities than usual, we 

 enquired the reason ; and were told, that there being 

 a great show of fruit upon the trees, they had been 

 thinned all at once, in order to make a kind of sour 

 paste, which the natives call Mahie, and which, in 

 consequence of having undergone a fermentation, 

 wdll keep a considerable time, and supply them with 

 food when no ripe fruit is to be had. 



On the 10th the ceremony was to be performed, 

 in honour of the old woman whose sepulchral taber- 

 nacle has just been described, by the chief mourner ; 

 and Mr. Banks had so great a curiosity to see all the 

 mysteries of the solemnity, that he determined to 

 take a part in it, being told, that he could be present 

 upon no other condition. In the evening, therefore, 



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