﻿OF CARMKOBA*. 343 



corpse In leaves and cloth, and others tearing to pieces 

 all the cloth which had belonged to her. In another 

 house hard by, the men of the village, with a great many 

 others from the neighbouring towns, were sitting drink- 

 ing soura and smoking tobacco. In the mean time 

 tw r o stout young fellows were busy digging a grave in 

 the sand near the house. When the woman had done 

 with the corpse, they set up a most hideous howl, upon 

 which the people began to assemble round the grave, 

 and four men went up into the house to bring down 

 the body; in doing this they were much interrupted 

 by a young man, son to the deceased, who endeavoured 

 with all his might to prevent them, but finding it in 

 vain, he clung round the body, and was carried to the 

 grave along with it : there, after a violent struggle, 

 he was turned away, and conducted back to the house. 

 The corpse now r put into the grave, and the lashings 

 which bound the legs and arms cut, all the live stock 

 which had been the property of the deceased, consist- 

 ing of about half a dozen hogs and as many fowls, 

 was killed, and flung in above it. A man then ap- 

 proached with a bunch of leaves stuck upon the end 

 of a pole, which he swept two or three times gently 

 .^long the corpse, and then the grave was filled up. 

 During the ceremony, the women continued to make 

 the most horrible vocal concert imaginable : the men 

 said nothing. A few days afterwards, a kind of mo- 

 nument was erected over the grave, with a pole upon 

 it, to which long strips of cloth of different colours 

 were hung. 



Polygamy is not known among them ; and their pu- 

 nishment of adultery is not less severe than effectual. 

 They cut, from the man's offending member, a piece 

 of the foreskin proportioned to the frequent commis- 

 sion or enormity of the crime. 



There seems to subsist among them a perfect equa- 

 lity. A few persons, from their age, have a little 



z 3 



