EXPEDITION TO SURINAM. 399 



as a Have: for this reafon they can take but very Uttle c hap. 

 care of their infants, which, neverthelefs, are ahvays 

 beakhy and undeformed. When they travel, they carry 

 them in fmall hammocks flung over one flioulder, in 

 which fits the child, having one leg before and the other 

 behind the mother. For an emetic they ufe the juice of 

 tobacco, which they feldom fmoke. 



When the Indians are dying, either from ficknefs or old 

 age, the latter of which is moll frequently the caufe, the 

 devil or Y^awaboo is at midnight exorcifed by the peii or 

 priell,. by means of rattling a calibafli filled with fmall 

 ftones, peas,, and beads,> accompanied by a long fpeech. 

 This office is hereditary, and by thefe pretended di- 

 vines no animal food, as I have before faid, is publicly ■ 

 ta-fted, and yet on the whole they live better than all 

 the others. When an Indian is dead, being firfr 

 waflied and anointed, he is buried naked, in a new 

 cotton bag, in a fitting attitude, his head refting on the 

 palms of his hands, his elbows on his knees, and all his 

 implements of war and hunting by his fide; during which 

 time his relations and neighbours rend the air by their dif- 

 mal lamentations ; but foon after, by a general drunken 

 riot, they drown their forrows till the following year. This 

 practice, by the w^ay,. bearsfome affinity to Dr. Smollet's 

 defcription of a burial in the Highlands of Scotland., At 

 the expiration of the year, the body, being rotten, is dug 

 up, and the bones diftributed to all the friends and ac- 

 quaintance, during which ceremony the former rites 

 X are. 



