A VOYAGE TO 
1 65 
vS * ^ad g°t ollt ojfr before I heard their cries and 
‘\j lamentations; and meeting them a few hours afterward, 
I found they had painted the lower part of their faces per¬ 
fect black. 
The other opportunity I had of obferving thefe cere¬ 
monies, was in the cafe of an ordinary perfon; when, on 
hearing fome mournful female cries ifiiie from a miferable 
looking hut, I ventured into it, and found an old woman 
with her daughter, weeping over the body of an elderly 
man, who had but juft expired, being ftill warm. The 
firft ftep they took, was to cover the body with cloth, 
after which, lying down by it, they drew the cloth over 
themfelves, and then began a mournful kind of fong, 
frequently repeating, Aweb medoaah ! Aweb tanee ! Oh my . 
father! Oh my hufband ! A younger daughter was alfo 
at the fame time lying proftrate, in a corner of the houfe, 
covered over with black cloth, repeating the fame words. 
On leaving this melancholy fcene, I found at the door a 
number of their neighbours collected together, and liften- 
i-ng to their cries with profound lilence. I was refolved not 
to mils this opportunity of feeing in what manner they dif- 
pofe of the body; and therefore, after fatisfying myfelf, 
before I went to bed, that it was not then removed, I gave 
orders, that the fentries fhould walk backward and forward 
before the houfe, and, in cafe they fufpefted any meafures 
were taking for the removal of the body, to give me im¬ 
mediate'notice. However, the fentries had not kept a good 
look-out, for in the morning I found the body was gone. 
On inquiring, what they had done with it ? They pointed 
toward the fea; indicating, moft probably, thereby, that it 
had been committed to the deep, or perhaps that it had 
1 been carried beyond the bay, to fome burying-ground in 
another 
