382 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 
In several other places, figures of a similar kind were met 
with, cut into the face of the slaty rock, or to wood, or on 
the surface of the gourds or pumpkins, most of which had 
something of the fetiche or sacred character attached to 
them. They have some vague notion of a future paradise, 
in which they shall all-be happy; they also entertain some 
idea of a good and an evil principle; the former is distin- 
guished by the name of Zamba M’Poonga; the latter by 
that of Caddee M’Peemba; but they seem to pay more 
veneration to, and to feel a greater dread of, their sub- 
stantial fetiches, than these imaginary personages. 
The most inoffensive part of their superstitions is the re- 
spect which they show to the dead ; and absurd as it may 
appear, a veneration for deceased friends and relations is 
always a favourable trait in the character of a people. 
Those who can afford, and they omit no endeavours to 
obtain it, cover the dead bodies of their relations with many 
folds of clothing, and keep them above ground, tll, from the 
quantity of wrappers added from time to time, they have 
arrived at an immense bulk; in this state they are then 
deposited in a hut; they mourn their loss at stated times 
of the day with howlings and lamentations ; and at length 
they bury them in graves of vast depth, with the view pro- 
bably of preventing the possibility of their being scratched 
up by beasts of prey ; they plant trees and shrubs round 
the graves, and like the Welsh and the Chinese, decorate 
them with flowers or place fetiches upon them. An ele- 
phant’s tusk placed at the head and another at the foot, 
mark the grave as belonging toa person of some distinction. 
