Recuisîtes fou a funeëal. 
101 
ceremony and discharges of musqiietr} continue without Inter- 
j^uption from morning to evening for three successive nights, Oa 
these occasions neither tobacco nor brandy is spared. 
When the person deceased is a man of importance, and hii 
parents or friends are rich, this mourning ceremony is repeated 
two or three times a year for several years together. On the 
death of a member of a poor family, his relatives are a longtime 
before they can procure a sufficient quantity of brandy and to-^ 
bacco for the solemnity; but, whatever difficulties they may ex- 
perience in amassing it, the ceremony takes place sooner or 
later. 
This assembly, in which both sexes join, may be called a pub* 
lie mourning; but there is another of a domestic kind, practised 
principally by the women, and which is peculiar to the Buiams 
and the Tommanies The performers on this occasion wear a 
linen or white cotton cap, which comes down as low as their 
eyes, so that they can see nothing but the ground. They have se- 
veral rows of the grain of the country round their neck and waists 
If they be married women, they wear no other clothes than the 
isimple tuntungee. They are not permitted to eat or drink 
with other persons, nor even prepare their own food; but at the 
time of the repast, a drum is beaten, and dancing takes place 
before the door ot the house in which the mourning is celebrated. 
None, except the guests, must use the vessels which are em^ 
ployed at this repast. 
The duration of such a mourning is not fixed, but is regulated 
by the will or caprice of those who make it; and the chief per- 
son is generally the mother, aunt, or some other aged relative. 
They generally cause it to be celebrated by young girls who are 
of a marriageable age, as a means of securing their virtue : for 
while It lasts, if any connection be discovered between the two 
sexes, the woman would be dishonoured, and the man pu- 
nished. 
A woman^ if she conceive herself neglected by her husband, 
may put the house of the latter into mourning; but, after she 
has made use of this privilege for a short time, the imsband 
pacifies her by a present: in consists of a goat, some poultry, 
tobacco, and a bottle of brandy, towards her expences. The wo- 
man then becomes tractable,, and the people reconcile her with 
her husband. This custom is very judicious on the part of the 
women, who like to avenge themselves and shew their authority : 
for while the mourning lasts, the husband cannot enjoy the society 
of his mistress. 
The drum is their principal instrument of music ; they have 
three sorts of it, which differ in size according to the purposes 
for which they^re used. One kind is made of hard w ood^ hoi- 
