314 CUSTOMS RESPECTING THE DEAD. 



L &quot;- v - songs and drunkennes they slew them; and these that 

 were appointed to death, held themselves happy. They did 

 sacrifice many things vnto them, especially yong children, 

 and with the bloud they made a stroake on the dead mans 

 . face, from one eare to the other. This superstition and 

 inhumanitie, to kill both men and women, to accompanie 

 and serve the dead in the other life, hath beene followed by 

 others, and is at this day vsed amongst some other barbarous 

 Nations. And as Polo writes, it hath beene in a maner 

 generall throughout all the Indies. The venerable Bede 

 reportes, that before the Englishmen were converted to the 

 Gospel they had the same custome, to kill men to accom 

 pany and serve the dead. It is written of a Portugal!, who, 

 being captive among the Barbarians, had beene hurt with 

 a dart, so as he lost one eye, and as they would have 

 sacrificed him to accompany a Nobleman that was dead, hee 

 said vnto them that those that were in the other life would 

 make small account of the dead if they gave him a blind 

 man for a companion, and that it were better to give him an 

 attendant that had both his eyes. This reason being found 

 good by the Barbarians they let him go. Besides this super 

 stition of sacrificing men to the dead, beeing used but to 

 great Personages, there is another far more general and 

 common in all the Indies, which is to set nieate and drinke 

 vpon the grave of the dead, imagining they did feede thereon: 

 the which hath likewise beene an error amongst the Ancients, 

 as saint Augustine writes, and therefore they gave them 

 rneate and drinke. At this day many Indian Infidells doe 

 secretly draw their dead out of the churchyard and burie 

 them on hilles, or vpon passages of mountains, or else in 

 their owne houses. They have also vsed to put gold and 

 silver in their mouth, hands, and bosome, and to apparell 

 them with new garments, durable and well lined, vnder 

 the herse. 



They beleeve that the soules of the dead wandred vp and 



