VERIFICATION OF DBATH-CAEAIBS. 53 



the woman is brought forward, still carrying on her back the bones of her 

 late husband, which are now removed and placed in a covered box, which 

 is nailed or otherwise fastened to a post twelve feet high. Her conduct as 

 a faithful widow is next highly eulogized, and the ceremony of her manu- 

 mission is completed by one man powdering on her head the down of birds 

 and another pouring on it the contents of a bladder of oil ! She is then at 

 liberty to marry again or lead a life of single blessedness; but few of them, I 

 believe, wish to encounter the risk attending a second widowhood. 



" The men are condemned to a similar ordeal, but they do not bear 

 it with equal fortitude, and numbers fly to distant quarters to avoid the 

 brutal treatment which custom has established as a kind of religious rite." 



Perhaps a short review of some of the peculiar and salient points of 

 this narrative may be permitted. It is stated that the corpse is kept nine 

 days after death — certainly a long period of time, when it is remembered 

 that Indians as a rule endeavor to dispose of their dead as soon as possible. 

 This may be accounted for on the supposition that it is to give the friends 

 and relatives an opportunity of assembling, verifying the death, and of mak- 

 ing proper preparations for the ceremony. With regard to the verification 

 of the dead person, William Sheldon* gives an account of a similar custom 

 which was common among' the Caraibs of Jamaica, and which seems to 

 throw some light upon the unusual retention of deceased persons by the 

 tribe in question, although it must be admitted that this is mere hypothesis: 



" They had some very extraordinary customs respecting deceased per- 

 sons. When one of them died, it was necessary that all his relations should 

 see him and examine the body in order to ascertain that he died a natural 

 death. They acted so rigidly on this principle, that if one relative remained 

 who had not seen the body all the others could not convince that one that 

 the death was natural. In such a case the absent relative considered him- 

 self as bound in honor to consider all the other relatives as having been 

 accessories to the death of the kinsman, and did not rest until he had killed 

 one of them to revenge the death of the deceased. If a Caraib died in 

 Martinico or Gruadaloupe and his relations lived in St. Vincents, it was neces- 

 sary to summon them to see the body, and several months sometimes 



'Trails. Am. Antiq. Sue. 1820, vol. 1, p. 377. 



