( i8 5 ) 



We put our canoe which two men had carried 

 thus far into the fecond of thofe fprings, and 

 we embarked ourfelves, but we had fcarce water 

 fufficient to keep her afloat. Ten men would in 

 two days make a ftreight and navigable canal, which 

 would fave a great deal of trouble and ten or twelve 

 leagues of way ; for the river at its fource is fo 

 very narrow, and fuch fhort turns muft of necef- 

 Xity be conftantly made, that there is danger of 

 damage every moment to the canoe, as has juft 

 now happened to us. But we fhall now return to 

 the Indians, and after having feen in what manner 

 they are treated during ficknefs, we mall take a 

 view of them whilft they are a-dying, and of what 

 pafTes after their death. 



For the mod part, when they believe themfelves 

 pad hopes of recovery, they put on a refolution 

 truly ftoical, and even fee their death haftened by 

 thofe perfons who are deareft to them, without tes- 

 tifying the leaft chagrin. No fooner has the phy- 

 fician pronounced fentence on a dying perfon, 

 than he makes an effort to harrangue thofe who 

 are about him. If he is the head of a family, he 

 makes his funeral oration before-hand, which he 

 concludes with giving his children the beft advice 

 he can ; afterwards he takes his leave of every 

 body, gives orders for a feaft, in which all the 

 provifions remaining in the cabbin muft be con- 

 fumed, and laftly, receives prefents from his fa- 

 mily. 



While this pafTes, they cut the throats of all the 

 ' dogs they can catch, that the fouls of theft ani- 

 mals may give information to the people in the o- 

 ther world, that fuch a perfon is foon coming to 

 join them ; and they throw all their bodies into the 

 kettle in order to encreafe the feaft. The repaft 



being 



