DEATHS. 



429 



connected bv a near or distant tie. One of the 

 blood-kinsmen acts Munadi, or crier. As each 

 one appears with his quotum, he shouts £ lo ! 

 such a person (naming him) has bought such 

 and such articles for his brother's funeral feast.' 

 This publicity tends of course to make men 

 liberal. The corpse is buried, as is customary 

 amongst Moslems, on the day, generally the 

 evening, of decease, and there is a popular belief , 

 in which some Europeans join, that deaths take 

 place mostly when the tide ebbs, at the full and 

 change of the moon. The custom of abusing 

 the corpse, accompanied with the greatest in- 

 decencies, is confined to the least civilized 

 settlements. After the funeral all apply them- 

 selves to eating, drinking, and what we should 

 call merriment ; whilst music and dancing are 

 kept up as long as weak human nature permits. 

 The object is not that of the Yorkshire Arvills, to 

 refresh those who attended from afar — it is confess- 

 edly to ' take the sorrow out of the heart.' So the 

 Yelorio of Yucatan is para divertise — to distract 

 kin-grief. As in the matter of marriage, however, 

 so in funerals, we can hardly deride barbarous races 

 whilst we keep up our pomp and expense of ridi- 

 culous trappings, taxing even the poor for mutes 

 and carriages, for ' gloves, scarves, and hatbands.' 



