92 TRAVELS IN 
proves but a very weak defence agalnft the 
attacks of the jackal and the hyaena : the 
body indeed is foon dug up, and devoured. 
However badly this laft duty may be dif- 
charged, the Hottentots are not much to be 
blamed, when we call to mind the funeral 
ceremonies of the ancient and celebrated 
Parfis, ftlll attached to the cuftom of expof- 
ing their dead on the tops of high towers, 
or in open cemeteries, in order that the crows 
and the vultures may feed upon them, and 
carry them away in morfels. 
A Hottentot, when he refpe£lfully de- 
pofits in the earth the lifelefs remains of his 
father or his friend, leaves to the falts, and 
diflblving juices which they contain, the 
care of decompofing the body quietly and 
at leifure : if he does not always fucceed 
according to his expeftation, and if he does 
not find the aflies of what was moft dear to 
him, he is plunged In grief, and by his la- 
mentations fufficiehtly (hews his affedtionate 
difpofition, and the great humanity of his 
charafter. 
When it is the chief of a horde that they 
have loft, their religious ceremonies are in* 
creafed ; that is to fay, the heap of ftones 
and 
