i62 A V O Y A G E T O 



'777- pear more like demons than men, and would almofl chili 



February. 



the boldeil with fear. To this fucceeds a circumilance, al- 

 moft foretold in their fierce demeanor, horrid, cruel, and 

 difgraceful to human nature; which is, cutting in pieces, 

 even before being perfedlly dead, the bodies of their ene- 

 mies, and, after drefling them on a fire, devouring the 

 flefli, not only without reluctance, but with peculiar fatif- 

 fadion^ 



One might be apt to fuppofe, that people, capable of 

 fuch excefs of cruelty, muft be deflitute of every humane 

 feeling, even amongft their own party. And yet we find 

 them lamenting the lofs of their friends, with a violence 

 of expreffion which argues the moft tender remembrance of 

 them. For both men and women, upon the death of thofe 

 connedled with them, whether in battle or otherwife, be- 

 wail them with the moft doleful cries ; at the fame time 

 cutting their foreheads and cheeks, with fliells or pieces 

 of flint, in large gaflies, until the blood flows plentifully and 

 mixes with their tears. They alfo carve pieces of their 

 preen ftone, rudely fliaped, as human figures, which they 

 ornament with bright eyes of pearl-fliell, and hang 

 them about their necks, as memorials of thofe whom they 

 held mofl; dear; and their afFedlions of this kind are fo 

 ftrong, that they even perform the ceremony of cutting, 

 and lamenting for joy, at the return of any of their friends, 

 who have been abfent but for a fhort time. 



The children are initiated, at a very early age, into all 

 the practices, good or bad, of their fathers ; fo that you find 

 a boy or girl, nine or ten years old, able to perform all the 

 motions, and to imitate the frightful geftures, by which the 

 more aged ufe to infpire their enemies with terror, keeping 

 8 ^^^s 



