ty, and those dependent even on the same master; so that the horrible confusion which for a time prevails is scarcely to be described.
Soon after death, the body is carefully washed, fumigated with incense, and sewed up in one of the cloths which the deceased wore when alive, and is immediately carried to the grave; the relations themselves bearing it on their shoulders in haste to the burying ground; and while it is depositing in the earth, the priests recite over it an appointed form of prayer for the occasion.
On the following day, or so soon as all the relations and friends of the deceased can be assembled, they proceed to the celebration of the "toscar," or "feast in honour of the dead." When the relations are people of consequence, an image is dressed out in rich garments to represent the deceased, which, being placed on his favourite mule, is carried in procession through the town or village near his residence to the tomb, all his other horses and mules following, decked out in gay ornaments and apparel, collected during his life time, according to custom, for this particular purpose. A number of hired female mourners attend this procession, who, while it passes along, continually keep up a kind of fearful howl, calling at times upon the deceased by name, and crying out, "why did you leave us? had you not houses and lands? had not you a wife that loved you?" and, by a number of similar complaints, accusing him of unkindness in leaving his friends. On reaching the tomb, the cries and lamentations are redoubled: and these mixed with the "hallelujahs" of the priests and the screams of the relatives, who again are seen tearing the skin from their faces, produce a terrible kind of concert, which may be justly said to
"Embowel with outrageous noise the air." Milton.
When this part of the ceremony is concluded, the whole company returns to the mansion of the deceased where a number of cattle are killed for the consumption of the attending crowd, and an abundant quantity of maiz and soua is served out, which generally proves amply sufficient to intoxicate the whole party. This strange kind of commemoration is at certain intervals renewed; every near relation in the course of the following
