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These baskets, which the natives call mapires, 

 have the form of a square bag. Their size is 

 proportioned to the age of the dead ; there are 

 some for infants cut off at the moment of their 

 birth. We saw them from ten inches to three 

 feet four inches long, the skeletons in them 

 being bent together. They are all ranged 

 near each other, and are so entire, that not a 

 rib, or a phalanx is wanting. The bones have 

 been prepared in three different manners, either 

 whitened in the air and the sun ; dyed red with 

 onoto, a colouring matter extracted from the 

 bixa orellana ; or, like real mummies, varnished 

 with odoriferous resins, and enveloped in leaves 

 of the heliconia or of the plantain tree. The 

 Indians related to us, that the fresh corpse is 

 placed in damp ground, in order that the flesh 

 may be consumed by degrees ; some months 

 after, it is taken out, and the flesh remaining on 

 the bones is scraped off with sharp stones. Se- 

 veral hordes in Guyana still observe this cus- 

 tom. Earthen vases half-baked are found near 

 the mapires, or baskets. They appear to con- 

 tain the bones of the same family. The largest 

 of these vases, or funeral urns, are three feet 

 high, and five feet and a half long. Their 

 colour is greenish gray ; and their oval form is 

 sufficiently pleasing to the eye. The handles are 

 made in the shape of crocodiles, or serpents ; the 

 edge is bordered with meanders, labyrinths, and 



