342 
A JOURNEY TO THE 
as this is in a great meafure mere form and cuf- 
tom, fome of them have a method of foftening 
the harfhnefs of the notes, and bringing them out 
in a more mufical tone than that in which they 
fing their fongs. When they refleét ferioufly on. 
the lofs of a good friend, however, it has fuch an 
effect on them for the prefent, that they give an 
uncommon loofe to their grief. At thofe times 
they feem to fympathife (through cuftom) with 
each other’s afflictions fo much, that I have often 
feen feveral {cores of them crying in concert, 
when at the fame time not above half a dozen of 
them had any more reafon for fo doing than I 
had, unlefs it was to preferve the old cuftom, and 
keep the others in countenance. The women 
are remarkably obliging on fuch occafions; and as 
no reftriction is laid on them, they may with 
truth be faid to cry with ail their might and 
main ; but in common converfation they are ob- 
liged to be very moderate. 
They have a tradition among them, that the 
firft perfon upon earth was a woman, who, after 
having been fome time alone, in her refearches 
for berries, which was then her only food, found 
an animal like a dog, which followed her to the 
cave where fhe lived, and foon grew fond and 
_domeftic. This dog, they fay, had the art of 
transforming itfelf into the fhape of a handfome 
young man, which it frequently did at night, but | 
as the day approached, always refumed its former 
fhape ; fo that the woman looked on all that pafl- 
ed 
