TRAVELS IN 
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hawk, pipe, and fuch other matters as he had the 
greatefi value for in his life-time. His eldeft wife, 
or the queen dowager, has the fecond choice of his 
poffeffions, and the remaining efFefts are divided 
amongft his other wives and children. 
The Chahlaws pay their laft duties and refpedt to 
the deceafed in a very different manner. As foon as 
the per fan is dead, they eredf a fcaffold eighteen or 
twenty feet high, in a grove adjacent to the town, 
where they lay the corpfe, lightly covered with a 
mantle : here it is buffered to remain, vifited and 
protected by the friends and relations, until the fiefli 
becomes putrid, fo as eafily to part from the bones ; 
then undertakers, who make it their bufinefs, care- 
fully ffrip the fleJth from the bones, wafh and cleanfe 
them, and when dry and purified by the air, having 
provided a curioufly wrought cheft or coffin, fabri- 
cated of bones and fplints, they place all the bones 
therein ; it is then depofited in the bone-houfe, a 
building eredled for that purpofe in every town*. 
And when this houfe is full, a general folemn fune- 
ral takes place * the neareft kindred or friends of 
the deceafed, on a day appointed, repair to the 
bone-houfe, take up the refpedtive coffins, and fol- 
lowing one another in order of feniority, the neareffi 
relations and connexions attending their rcfpeftive 
corpfe, and the multitude following after them, all 
as one family, with united voice of alternate Alle- 
lujah and lamentation, fiowly proceed to the place 
of general interment, where they place the coffins 
in order, forming a pyramid** and laftly, cover 
* Some ingenious men, whom I have converted with, have given it as 
their opinion, that all thofe pyramidal artificial hills, ufually called Indian 
mounts, were railed on thefe oc caftans, and are generally fgpulchres. -How> 
ever, I am of a different opinion. 
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