166                OkIGIN Of !'IE

they receive in their cabins, is to weep for those of his
own relations1 whom he has lost since they saw him last.
Tlhey put their hands on his head, and they give him
to understand who it is they weep for, without mention-
ing his name. All this is founded in nature and has
nothing in it of barbarity. But what I am going to
speak of does not appear to be any way excusable; that
is, the behaviour of these people towards those who die
by a violent death, even though it is in war, and for the
service of their country.
    They have got a notion that their souls, in the other
World, have no communication with the others; and on
this principle they burn them, or bury them directly,
sometimes even before they expire. They never lay
them in the common burying place, and they give them
no part in the great ceremony, which is renewed every
eight years among some nations, and every ten years
among the Hurons and Iroquois.
  " They call it the festival of the dead, or the feast
of souls; and here follows what I could collect that was
most uniform and remarkable concerning this ceremony,
which is the most singular, and the most celebrated of
the religion of the savages. They begin by fixing a
lace for the assembly to meet in; then they choose the
king of the feast, whose duty it is to give orders for
every thing, and to invite the neighbouring villages.
The day appointed being come, all the savages assem-
ble, and go in procession two and two to the burying
place. There every one labours to uncover the bodies;
                0       a~~~~~~~~~~~~
then they continue some time contemplating in sile:nce
a spectacle so capable of exciting the most serious re-
flections. The women first interrupt this religious
silence, by sending forth mournful cries, which increase
the horror with which every one is filled.
  '' This first act being ended, they take up the car-
casses, and pick up the dry and separated bones, and
-put th tm in parcels; and those who are ordered to carry
them, take them on their shoulders. If there are any
bodies not entirely decayed, they wash them; they clean