vels) and other nations in Africa, to expose the remains of their dead in this manner. The following passage, which I have since met with in Purchas's Collection, satisfactorily confirms my conjecture. Speaking of a tribe of natives on this coast, his author says, "When any of them die, the kindred friends and neighbours assemble and bewail him all that day in which he dieth, and the same day lay him on a mat or seat (a kind of rude couch) where he died, and if he had any cloth, bury him therein, otherwise naked. They make a hole in the desart, and set by him a vessel of water and a little maise to eate and drinke in his journey to the other "life,[1] and without more ceremonies cover him with earth, and lay on the hole the mat, or chaire on which he was brought to burial, where they consume without any more respect, although they be new—for they hold it ominous to touch that seat on which one died.—The Christians there were as scrupulous of the mats or chaires of their slaves deceased; but I bestowed them on the fire or water, and they besought me of charitie to forbear lest some evils should befal them from the dead."
At Cabaçeiro stands an excellent house, belonging to a Signor Aranjo, who at this time was very prudently engaged in surrounding it with a high wall, as a protection against the Makooa. The shore on the side of the bay is flat, and intersected by a great number of sandy creeks and inlets, which are left dry at low water: these I repeatedly visited in search of sea productions, and I never met with so great a variety on any other coast. The star-fish and sea-flowers were particularly beautiful, and of many exquisite colours. Sponges too, of several curious sorts, were common, and the sand was besides loaded with muscles, crabs, and other shell fish; while in the shallow water various species of sea priapi were found, and different sorts of molluscæ, some of which, though beautiful to the eye, could not be preserved, as they soon dissolved on being exposed to the sun, or when
- ↑ The American Indians about Lima have a precisely similar custom, and a gentleman resident in London, possesses some of the vessels used on such occasions.
