TRAVELS IN 
hawk, pipe, and fuch other matters as he had the 
greateft value for in his life time. His eldeft wife, 
or the queen dowager, has the fecond choice of his 
poneiTions/, and the remaining effects are divided 
amongft his other wives and children, 
The Cha&aws pay their laft duties and refpect 
to the deceafed in a very different manner. As 
foon as> a perfon is dead, they ef e& a fcaffoid eigh- 
teen or twenty feet high, in a grove adjacent to the 
town, where they lay the corpfe, lightly covered 
with a mantle : here it is fuffered to remain, vi- 
fited and protected by the friends and relations, un- 
til the flem becomes putrid, fo as eafily to part from 
the bones; then undertakers, who make it their 
bufinefs^ carefully ftrip the flefli from the bones, 
wafti and cleanfe them, and when dry and purified 
by the air, having provided a curioully wrought 
cheft or coffin, fabricated of bones and fplints, they 
place all the bones therein \ it is then depofited in 
the bone-houfe, a building erected for that purpofe 
in every town. And when this houfe is full, a ge- 
neral folemn funeral takes place ; the neareft kin- 
dred or friends of the deceafed, on a day appointed, 
repair to the bone-houfe, take up the refpective 
coffins, and following one another in order of fe- 
niority, the neareft relations and connexions at- 
tending their refpe£tive corpfe, and the multitude 
following after them, all as one family, with united 
voice of alternate Ailelujah and lamentation, flowly 
proceed to the place of general interment, where 
they place the coffins in order, forming a pyramid*; 
and laftly, cover all over with earth, which raifes 
* Some ingenious men, whom I have eonverfed with, have given it as 
their opinion, that all thofe pyramidal artificial hills, ufually called Indian 
mounts, were raifed on thefe occafious, and are generally fepulchres. 
However I am of a different opinion, 
a conical 
