c m ) 



touch them : fo that they lie as in a eel J entirely 

 covered with fkins, much richer and better adorned 

 than any of their cabbins. A poft is afterwards 

 erected, on which they fix every thing capable of 

 expreffing the efteem in which they held the de- 

 ceafed. His portrait is fometimes placed upon it, 

 with whatever elfe can ferve to make pafTengers 

 acquainted with his (late and condition, and figni- 

 fy the mod remarkable actions of his life. Frefh 

 provifions are carried to the place every morning, 

 and as the dogs and other beads do not fail to take 

 advantage of this, they would fain perfuade them- 

 felves that it is the foul of the deceafed, who comes 

 to take fome refreshment. 



-After this, it is not to be wondered at if the In- 

 dians believe in apparitions : in fact they have 

 numberlefs ftories of that kind. I have feen a poor 

 man, who merely by the ftrength of hearing them 

 talked of, imagined he had always a troop of dead 

 men at his heels ; and as people took a pleafure in 

 terrifying him, he at laft became ftark mad. Af- 

 ter, however, a certain term of years, they ufe as 

 much precaution to efface the remembrances of 

 thofe they have loft from their minds, as they had 

 before taken care to preferve it, and this they do 

 entirely to put an end to the grief they felt on that 

 occafion. 



Some of our miflionaries afked of their converts, 

 one day, why they deprived them felves of the molt 

 neceffary things in favour of their dead ? " It 

 " is," anfwered they, " not only to teftify to our 

 tc neighbours the love we bore them, but likewife 

 " to prevent our having always before our eyes, 

 " .objects, which being conftantly ufed by them, 

 C6 rntift incelfantly renew our grief." It is likewife 



