NANCOWRY AND COMARTY. 13^ 



said of them here. I have only, to state, in addition, 

 an extraordinary ceremony which they annually per- 

 form, in honour r or the dead. 



On the anniversary of this festival, if it can be so 

 called, their houses are decorated with garlands of 

 flowers, fruits, and branches of trees. The people of 

 each village assemble, drest in their best attire, at the 

 principal house in the place, where they spend the day 

 in a convivial manner ; the men, sitting apart from 

 the women, smoke tobacco and intoxicate themselves; 

 while the latter are nursing their children and employ- 

 ed in preparations for the mournful business of the 

 night. At a certain hour of the afternoon, announced 

 by striking the Goung % the women set up the most 

 dismal howls and lamentations, which they continue 

 without intermission till about sun-set ; when the 

 whole party get up, and walk in procession to the 

 burying-ground. Arrived at the place, they form a 

 circle around one of the graves, when a stake, planted 

 exactly over the head of the corpse, is pulled up. The 

 woman who is nearest of kin to the deceased, steps 

 out from the crowd, digs up the skull, -f and draws it 

 up with her hands. At sight ot the bones, her strength 

 seems to fail her ; she shrieks, she sobs ; and tears of 

 anguish abundantly fall on the mouldering object of 

 her pious care* She clears it from the earth* scrapes 



* An instrument of brass, somewhat like the Gurry of Bengal. 

 Its sound is more hollow. 



f We were present at the ceremony oh the 1st of February, 

 1790, when the first skull we saw was that of* a woman, who had 

 been buried but a few months before. It was then dug up for the 

 first time by her daughter. This office, we are told, is always 

 performed by the women, whichever sex the skull belongs to. A 

 man in a fantastic garb officiates as priest. 



K 4 off 



