INHABITANTS OF PERU. 



281 



deceased being chanted to the sound of instruments. All the 

 inhabitants of the vicinity unite in chorus from within their 

 houses, some chirping like birds, others howling like tigers, 

 and the greater part of them chattering like monkeys, or 

 croaking like frogs. They constantly leave off by having re- 

 course to the masatOy and by the destru6lion of whatever the 

 deceased may have left behind him, the burning of his dwel- 

 ling being that which concludes the ceremonies. Among 

 some of the Indians, the nearest relatives cut off their hair, as 

 a token of their grief, agreeably to the pra6tice of the Moabites, 

 and other nations. 



On the day of decease, they put the body, with its insignia, 

 into a large earthen vessel, or painted jar, which they bury in 

 one of the angles of the quarter, laying over it a covering of 

 potter's clay, and throwing in earth until the grave is on a 

 level with the surface of the ground. When the obsequies are 

 over, they forbear to pay a visit to it, and lose every recoUedlion 

 of the name of thewarrior. TheRoamaynasdisenterretheirdead, 

 as soon as they think that the fleshy parts have been consumed ; 

 and having washed the bones, form the skeleton, which they 

 place in a cofEn of potter's clay, adorned with various symbols 

 of death, like the hieroglyphics on the wrappers of the Egyp- 

 tian mummies. In this state the skeleton is carried home, to 

 the end that the survivors may bear the deceased in rcspe6tful 

 memory, and not in imitation of those extraordinary voluptU' 

 aries of antiquity, who introduced into their most splendid 

 festivals a spectacle of this nature, which, by reminding them 

 of their dissolution, might stimulate them to taste, before it 

 should overtake them, all the impure pleasures the human 

 passions could afford them. A space of time, which appears 



o o to 



