KHYEN TRIBE. 265 



Their ideas of the difference between good and evil consist in supposing 

 that those who honor and respect their parents, take care of their children or 

 cattle, and eat most meat and drink spirits to the greatest excess, will be well 

 provided for hereafter, and their souls transferred into the bodies of oxen 

 or pigs, whilst those whose sensual appetites are not so great, and who do 

 not enjoy to the utmost all the good things of the earth, which may be thrown 

 in their way, are considered unworthy of a future reward, looked down upon 

 and condemned. Although it is evident the Khyens partly profess the doc- 

 trine of transmigration, yet it seems most extraordinary that they should not 

 only feel no compunction in killing their cattle, but deem it a meritorious act. 

 It must however be observed, that the sanction of the Passine is necessary be- 

 fore an animal can be slain. 



When any one dies, the event is hailed as a joyful circumstance, and the 

 relations give a grand feast, to which all the village is invited, when the degree 

 of affection borne to the deceased is shewn by dancing, eating, and drinking, in 

 prodigious quantity. Should the defunct be a man of property, his body is 

 burned, and the ashes being collected, are placed in a basket, and either taken to 

 the mountain of Keyoungnatyn, on the wa}' from Shoechatoh, or to the moun- 

 tain of Yehantoung, and there deposited : the latter mountain is very sacred and 

 very lofty, for, to use the native phraseology, " from its summit the whole world 

 can be seen." Over the tomb of a chief, a house is erected, and people are left to 

 watch and defend it from malevolent spirits, and a log, rudely carved, to represent 

 the deceased, is laid there for the same purpose. The poor people, if not in 

 the immediate neighbourhood of Yehantoung or Keoungnatyne, are buried 

 any where in the vicinity of their own village. 



Matrimony with the Khyens is purely a civil contract, unhallowed by^ 

 any religious ceremony. The contracting parties proceed, in the first instance, 

 to the Passine, whose advice is requested respecting the match. If his opinion 



2 T 



