CHAP. XXX. BURIAL-PLACES IN LABEADOE. 165 



for a few minutes tremble like an aspen leaf. The heavy beards 

 of the men, and the fair complexions of all, astonished my 

 Indians greatly, who in their surprise called them 'Manooli 

 Conde,' like white people. They were all exceedingly well- 

 dressed in deer-skin clothing, with the hair outside, which, being 

 new and nicely ornamented with white fur, gave them a clean 

 and very comfortable appearance. Their little Kiyachs were 

 beautifully made, and all the men were well armed with deadly- 

 looking knives, spears, and arrows, all of their own manufacture. 

 The Indians are much afraid of them ; and so afraid of my 

 safety were two different parties that I saw on my way down, 

 that a man from each of them, who could speak a little Eskimos, 

 volunteered to accompany me, without fee or reward ; and 

 invaluable did I find their services. Poor fellows, they will 

 never see this ; but I cannot refrain from paying them here 

 my tribute of gratitude and thanks. 



Death is at all times solemn and sad, but if we may 

 judge of the feelings which weigh upon the Labradorians 

 by the rude inscriptions upon their still ruder tombs, 

 or hung near their places of sepulture (for cemeteries 

 they cannot be named), the loss of friends in those 

 rocky wave-washed wilds is most keenly felt. 



There is something very touching in the stern necessity 

 which compels the people on some part of the desolate 

 coasts between Cape Wliittle and Bradore Bay to bury 

 their dead in clefts and holes of the rocks. They dare 

 not, for fear of the bears, lay them, as the Lake Huron 

 Indians do, on the bare gneiss, and cover them with 

 stones. They ' hide them in caves and holes of the earth,' 

 and sometimes inscribe their grief on the hard rock, or 

 on pieces of wood beyond the reach of beasts of prey. 

 The Eoman Cathohc priests, on their annual arrivals, 

 often visit these primitive resting-places of the dead. 



