660 ARTS AND CRAFTS OF GUIANA INDIANS [ETH, ANN. 38 
other world. His dog is also buried to guard him and watch those 
that caused him to die. They then begin their screams. The whole 
hut resounds with tears and groans. They are seen dancing, crying, 
and singing together, but in a doleful voice. They say only two or 
three words at a time, such as, “ Why are you dead?” ‘“ Were you 
tired of life?” “Did you not have enough cassava?” repeating the 
same thing. But if he has been killed they will say something against 
the murderer and praise the defunct. If he has relations in other 
huts they all meet to ery, and the widow is present and gives kick- 
shaws to those who cried the best, and as a last sign of their mourning 
they cut their hair. I have been told that formerly they burned the 
bodies of their captains and mixed the ashes in their drink; but this 
custom is abandoned now, because there are no more braves (PBR, 
252). According to Rochefort, after the washing and painting 
of the corpse it was wrapped up [in the foetal position] in a new 
bed [hammock] until all things were ready to dispose it in the 
ground. They commonly made the grave within the house of the 
deceased ; or if they buried him elsewhere, they always made a cover- 
ing over the place where the body was to be laid. And during the 
space of 10 days, or thereabouts, twice every day the relations and the 
most intimate friends came to visit the deceased party at his grave; 
and they always brought him something to eat and drink, saying to 
him every time, “ Alas! why wouldst thou die? Why wilt thou not 
return to life again? Say not at least that we refused thee where- 
withal to live upon, for we have brought thee somewhat to eat and 
drink.” And after they have made this pleasant exhortation to him, 
as if he should have heard them, they left the meat and drink they 
had brought with them at the brink of the grave until the next visit, 
at which time they put it on his head, since he thought it much to 
stretch forth his hand to take it . . .. The Caribbeans of some islands 
do still set meat at the graves of the deceased, but they leave them 
not so long as they did heretofore ere they covered them with earth. 
After the funeral lamentation is ended and the women have wept as 
much as they can, the corpse is buried in the 4 to 5 foot deep grave. 
This is round like a tun, and at the bottom of it they set a little stool, 
on which the relations and friends of the deceased place the body sit- 
ting, leaving it in the same posture as they put it in immediately 
after death. After they have let it down into the grave some friend 
of the deceased lays a plank over his head, and the rest put the earth 
together with their hands until they have filled the grave, and make 
a great fire about it. All the more ancient, both men and women, 
kneel down. The men place themselves behind the women and ever 
and anon they stroke them with their hands over their arms to incite 
them to lament and weep. They burn all that belonged to the de- 
