240 



keouck's dead child. 



would come. They afterwards fasten tall poles of 

 bamboo upright to the hoops pretty closely all 

 round, and bringing their ends together, tie them 

 to a stout centre pole, which rises up from the 

 interior and protrudes through the roof. Onto 

 this frame work they weave and fasten a very thick 

 thatch of grass, and palm-leaves split into thin 

 strips, leaving only one small opening for the door, 

 to enter which they must crouch on the hands and 

 knees. The houses, then, as mentioned before, 

 look just like great beehives. 



Under some trees outside the fencing were sitting 

 two old women, one of whom was Seewai's wife, the 

 other Keouck's. The latter had on her lap the 

 body of a child, a few months old, and which seemed 

 to have been dead some time. It was stretched out 

 on a frame- work of sticks, and smeared over with a 

 thick red pigment, which dressing she was now 

 renewing. It was much shrunk, with the skin 

 hanging in loose folds, but had no other appearance 

 of decomposition. As soon as she had smeared it 

 all over, she hung it up behind her in the shade of 

 a bush, talking and laughing quite unconcernedly. 

 Keouck said it was his "piccaninny." The two 

 women had their heads closely shaven* and smeared, 

 as well as their faces, with a white pigment, but 

 had no other signs of mourning about them. 



* It was principally for shaving and cuttiog their hair, I 

 believe, that they so eagerly desired our bottles, as they always 

 used bits of broken glass for that purpose 



