162 
A VOYAGE TO 
1777- pear more like demons than men, and would almoft chill 
Jcbruaiy^ j ^ f ear> To this fucceeds a circumftance, al- 
moll foretold in their fierce demeanor, horrid, cruel, and 
difgraceful to human nature; which is, cutting in pieces, 
even before being perfectly dead, the bodies of their ene¬ 
mies, and, after drefling them on a fire, devouring the 
flefh, not only without reluctance, but with peculiar fatif- 
faCtion. 
One might be apt to fuppofe, that people, capable of 
fuch excefs of cruelty, mult he deftitute of every humane 
feeling, even amongit their own party. And yet we find 
them lamenting the lofs of their friends, with a violence 
of expreflion which argues the molt tender remembrance of 
them. For both men and women, upon the death of thofe 
connected with them, whether in battle or otherwife, be¬ 
wail them with the molt doleful cries; at the fame time 
cutting their foreheads and cheeks, with fhells or pieces of 
flint, in large gafhes, until the blood flows plentifully and 
mixes with their tears. They alfo carve pieces of their 
green flone, rudely fhaped, as human figures, which they 
ornament with bright eyes of pearl-fhell, and hang them 
about their necks, as memorials of thofe whom they held 
moft dear; and their affeClions of this kind are fo llrong, 
that they even perform the ceremony of cutting, and la¬ 
menting for joy, at the return of any of their friends, who 
have been ahfent but for a Ihort time. 
The children are initiated, at a very early age, into all 
the practices, good or bad, of their fathers ; fo that you 
find a boy or girl, nine or ten years old, able to perform all 
the motions, and to imitate the frightful geftures, by which 
the more aged ufe to infpire their enemies with terror, 
keeping the ftriCtefl: time in their fong. They likewife 
fing, 
