travels in North America. 277 



Cabin to which the Widower or the Widow belongs. Thefe 

 Permiffions, as well as the End of the Mourning, always cofl a 

 Feaft. 



Widows cannot contrad a fécond Marriage without the Confent 

 T^r-j 7 J thofe on whom they depend, in Virtue 

 Of Widowhood ^^^^ Widowhood. If they can 



and Second Mar^ Hulband for the Widow, flie finds 



herfelf under no Difficulties : If Ihe nas any 

 Sons of an Age to fupport her, fhe may continue in a State of 

 Widowhood, without Danger of ever wanting any Thing : If 

 fhe is willing to marry again, fhe may chufe, and the Man fhe 

 marries becomes the Father of her Children : He enters into 

 all the Rights, and all the Obligations of the £rft HulLand. 



The Hulband does not v/eep for his Wife ; becaufe, accord- 

 ing to the Savages, Tears do not become Men ; but this is not 

 general among all Nations. The Women v/eep for their 

 Hufbands a Year : They call him without ceafing, and fill their 

 Village with Cries and Lamentations, efpecially at the rifing 

 and fecting of the Sun, at Noon, and in forne Places when they 

 go out to Work, and when they return. Mothers do much the 

 ^me for their Children. The Chiefs mourn only fix Months, 

 and may aftèrwards marry again. 



The firfl, and often the only Compliment they make to a 

 çr-i -KT ' p Friend, and even to a Stranger they receive 

 Ihe JSotion of their Cabins, is to weep for thofe of his 

 the Sa-vages about ^^.^ R^^^^tions, whom he has loft fince they 



Head, and they give him to underftand who 

 it is they weep for, v>/ithout mentioning his Name. All this is 

 founded in Nature, and has nothing in it of Barbarity. But 

 what I am going to fpeak of, does not appear to be any Way 

 excufable ; that is, the Behaviour of thefe People towards thofe 

 who die by a violent Death, even though it is in War, and for 

 the Service of their Country. 



They have got a Notion that their Souls, in the other World, 

 have, no Communication with the others ; and on this Principle 

 they burn them, or bury them diredly, fometimes even before 

 they expire. They never lay them in the common Burying- 

 Place, and they give them no Part in the great Ceremony, which 

 is renewed every eight Years among fome Nations, and every tea 

 Years among the iZ^rc;// and the /r^'^Wj. 



They call it the Fejiiual of the Dead, or the Feaft of SmIs : 

 And here follows what I could collet that was moft uniform and 

 remarkable concerning this Ceremony, which is the moft fingular 

 and the moft celebrated of the Religion of the Savages. They 

 begin by fixing a Place for the AfTembly to meet in : Then they 



chufe 



