Note 6, page 553, col. 2.

Preserved with horrid art

In ghastly image of humanity.

The more ghastly in proportion as more of the appearance of life is preserved in the revolting practice. Such, however, it was not to the feelings of the Egyptiaus, who had as much pride in a collection of their aucestors, as one of the strongest family feeling could have in a collection of family pictures. The body, Diodorus says, is delivered to the kindred with every member so whole and entire that no part of the body seems to be altered, even to the very hairs of the eyelids and the eyebrows, so that the beauty and shape of the face seems just as before. By which means many of the Egyptians laying up the bodies of their ancestors in stately monuments, perfectly see the true visage and countenance of those who were buried many ages before they themselves were born: so that in regarding the proportion of every one of these bodies, and the lineaments of their faces, they take exceeding great delight, even as if they were still living among them. -(Book i.)

They believe, says Herodotus (Euterpe, sect. 123), that on the dissolution of the body the soul immediately enters into some other animal; and that after using as vehicles every species of terrestrial, aquatic, and winged creatures, it finally enters a second time into a human body. They affirm that it undergoes all these changes in the space of three thousand years. This opinion some among the Greeks have at different periods of time adopted as their own, but I shall not, though I could, specify their names.

How little did the Egyptians apprehend that the bodies which they preserved with such care to he ready again for use when the cycle should be fulfilled, would one day be regarded as an article of trade, broken up, exported piecemeal, and administered in grains and scruples as a costly medicine to rich patients. A preference was even given to virgin mummy!

The bodies of the Incas from the founder of the empire were preserved in the Temple of the Sun; they were seated each on his litter, and in such excellent preservation that they seemed to be alive; according to the testimony of P. Acosta and Garcilaso, who saw them and touched them. It is not known in what manner they were prepared, so as to resist the injuries of time. Gomara (c. 195) says they were embalmed by the juice of certain fragrant trees, which was poured down their throats, and by unguents of gum. Acosta says that a certain bitumen was used, and that plates of gold were placed instead of eyes, so well fitted that the want of the real eye was not perceived. Garcilaso thought the chief preparation consisted in freezing them with snow. They were buried in one of the courts of the hospital of St Andres.-Merc. Peruano, No. 221.

four great galleries, into which the light is admitted by windows cut out at the top of each extremity. In this vault are preserved, not in flesh, but in skin and bone, all the Capuchins who have died in the convent since its foundation, as well as the bodies of several persons from the city. There are here private tombs belonging to opulent families, who, even after annihilation, disdain to be confounded with the vulgar part of mankind. It is said, that in order to secure the preservation of these bodies, they are prepared by being gradually dried before a slow fire, so as to consume the flesh without greatly injuring the skin; when perfectly dry, they are invested with the Capuchin habit, and placed upright, on tablets, disposed step above step along the sides of the vault; the head, the arms, and the feet are left naked. A preservation like this is horrid. The skin discoloured, dry, and as if it had been tanned, nay, toru in some places, glued close to the bones. It is easy to imagine, from the different grimaces of this numerous assemblage of fleshless figures, rendered still more frightful by a long beard on the chin, what a hideous spectacle this must exhibit; and whoever has seen a Capuchin alive, may form an idea of this singular repository of dead friars.»—Sonninı.

It is not surprising that such practices arise from superstition; but it is strange, indeed, that they should afford any gratification to pride. That excellent man, Fletcher of Madeley, has a striking remark upon this subject. «The murderer,» says he, « is dissected in the surgeon's hall, gratis; and the rich sinner is embowelled in his own apartment at great expence. The robber, exposed to open air, wastes away in hoops of iron; and the gentleman, confined to a damp vault, moulders away in sheets of lead; and while the fowls of the air greedily prey upon the one, the verinin of the earth eagerly devour the other.»>

How different is the feeling of the Hindoos upon this subject from that of the Egyptians! «A mansion with bones for its rafters and beams; with nerves and tendons for cords; with muscles and blood for mortar; with skin for its outward covering; filled with no sweet perfume, but loaded with feces and urine; a mansion infested by age and by sorrow, the seat of malady, harassed with pains, haunted with the quality of darkness, and incapable of standing long-Such a mansion of the vital soul lets its occupier always cheerfully quit.x-Inst. of Menu.

Note 7, page 554, col. 2.

When the laden Lee

Buzzed by him in its flight, he could pursue Its path with certain ken.

Among the remarkable objects in the vicinity of Palermo pointed out to strangers, they fail not to singularise a convent of Capuchins at a small distance from town, the beautiful gardens of which serve as a public walk. You are shown, under the fabric, a vault divided into

P. 41.

Note 8, page 554, col. 2.

Covering with soft gums the obedient limb And body, then with feathers overlay,

In regular bues disposed.

Inconvenient as this may seem, it was the full-dress of the Tupi and Guarani tribes. A fashion less gorgeous

and elaborate, but more refined, is described by one of the best old travellers to the East, François Pyrard.

« The inhabitants of the Maldives use on feast days this kind of gallantry. They bruise sanders (sandalwood) and camphire, on very slicke and smooth stones, (which they bring from the firm land,) and sometimes other sorts of odoriferous woods. After they compound it with water distilled of flowers, and overspread their bodies with this paste, from the girdle upwards; adding many forms with their finger, such as they imagine. It is somewhat like cut and pinked doublets, and of an excellent savour. They dress their wives or lemans in this sort, and make upon their backs works and shadows as they please.» Skin-prints Purchas calls this.—Pyrard de Laval. Purchas, p. 1655.

The abominable practice of tarring and feathering was but too well known during the American war. It even found its way to England. I remember, when a child, to have seen a man in this condition in the streets of Bristol.

The costume of the savages who figured so frequently in the pageants of the sixteenth century, seems to have been designed to imitate the Brazilian tribes, best known to the French and English at that time. Indeed, this is expressed by Vincent Carloix, when in describing an entertainment given to Marechal de Vieilleville by the captains of the galley at Marseilles, he says, «Ayant lié six galères ensemble de front, et faict dresser les tables dessus, et tapissées en façon de grandes salles; ayant accoustrés les forceats en Bressiliens pour servir, ils firent une infinité de gambades et de tourbions à la façon des sauvages, que personne n'avoit encore veues; dont tout le monde, avec une extresme allaigresse, s'esbahissoit merveilleusement.»-Mémoires, l. x, ch. 18.

Note 9, page 555, col. 1.

Drinking feasts.

The point of honour in drinking is not the same among the savages of Guiana, as among the English potators; they account him that is drunk first the bravest fellow-Harcourt's Voyage.

Note 10, page 555, col. 1.

A custom strange, and yet far spread Through many a savage tribe, bowe'er it grew, And once in the old world known as widely as the new. «Je la trouve chez les Iberiens, ou les premiers peuples d'Espague; je la trouve chez les anciens habitants de l'Isle de Corse; elle étoit chez les Tibareniens en Asie; elle est aujourd'hui dans quelques-unes de nos provinces voisines d'Espagne, ou cela s'appele faire couvade; elle est encore vers le Japon, et dans l'Amerique chez les Caraibes et les Galibis.»-Lafitau, Maurs des Sauvages, t. i. p. 50.

à ce que l'on dit, parmy les paysans d'une certaine province de France; et ils appellent cela faire la couvade. Mais ce qui est de fàcheuse pour le pauvre Caraibe qui s'est mis au lit au lieu de l'accouchée, c'est qu'on luy fait faire diete dix ou douze jours de suite, ne lui donnant rien par jour qu'un petit morceau de cassave, et un peu d'eau dans laquelle on a aussi fait bouillir un peu de ce pain de racine. Après il mange un peu plus; mais il n'entame la cassave qui luy est presentée que par le milieu durant quelques quarante jours, en laissant les bords entiers qu'il pend à sa case, pour servir à un festin qu'il fait ordinairement en suite à tous ses amis. Et même il s'abstient après cela, quelquefois dix mois ou un an entier de plusieurs viandes, comme de lamantin, de tortue, de pourceau, de poules, de poisson, et de choses délicates, craignant par une pitoyable folie que cela ne nuise à l'enfant. Mais il ne font ce grand jusne qu'à la naissance de leur premier enfant.»-Rochefort. Hist. Morale, c. 23. p. 495.

Hanno un'

Marco Polo (L. ii, c. 41), the other authority to which Lafitau refers, speaks of the custom as existing in the great Khan's province of Cardandan. usanza che subito ch'una donna ha partorito, si leva del letto, e lavato il fanciullo e ravolto ne' panni, il marito si mette a giacere in letto in sua vece, e tiene il figliuolo appresso di se, havendo la cura di quello per quaranta giorni, che non si parte mai. Et gli amici e parenti vanno a visitarlo per rallegrarlo e consolarlo; e le donne che sono da parto fanno quel che bisogna per casa, portando da mangiare e bere al marito, ch' e nel letto, e dando il latte al fanciullo, che gli è appresso. » -Ramusio, t. ii, p. 36, ed. 1583.

Yet this custom, preposterous as it is, is not more strange than an opinion which was once so prevalent in this country that Primerose made it the subject of a chapter in his work de Vulgi Erroribus in Medicina, and thought it necessary to prove, by physical reasons, maritum loco uxoris gravida non ægrotare, for such is the title of one of his chapters. He says, « Inter errores quamplurimos maximè ridendus hic esse videtur, quod vir credatur ægrotare, iisque affici symptomatis, quibus ipsa mulier prægnaus solet, illudque experientià confirmatum plurimi esse volunt. Habebam ægrum febre laborantem cum urinà valde accensà et turbidâ, qui ægrotationis suæ nullam causam agnoscebat quam uxoris suæ graviditatem. Nullibi terrarum quam in Anglia id observatum memini me audivisse, aut legisse unquam.-Nec si quis maritus cum uxor gravida est, ægrotat, ab uxore infectus fuit, sed potest ex peculiari proprii corporis vitio id pati. Sicut dum hæc scribo, pluit; non est tamen pluvia aut causa scriptionis, aut scriptura pluviæ. Res nova non est, viros et mulieres etiam simul ægrotare. At mirum est hactenusque iguotum, graviditatem affectum esse contagiosum, et nou alias mulieres sed viros, quos natura immunes ab hoc labore fecit, solos infici. Præterea observatum est non omnibus mulieribus ejusmodi symptomata, aut saltem non omnia singulis contingere; et tamen accidit sæpe ut cum mulier bene valet, ægrotet maritus, etiam ab

"

tione absurditas hujus erroris patet, plura non addam.

vit. Sed hoc illi esto proprium.» Lib. ii, c. 13.

This notion, however, is probably not yet extinct, for I know that it existed in full force some thirty years ago, and that not in the lowest rank of life.

of a tribe on the N. bank of the Plata who put their women to death when they were thirty years old, thinking they had then lived long enough. I have not seen this custom mentioned by any other writer, nor do I believe that it can possibly have existed.

Note 14, page 559, col. 1.

And Father was his name.

the second volume contains the historical part; but when Mr Kinder purchased the one at Buenos Ayres, the other was on its way to the United States, having been borrowed from the owner by an American, and not returned. Fortunately the subjects of the two volumes are so distinct that each may be considered as a complete work; and I have referred to that which I possess, in the history of Brazil, by the title of Noticias

Note 16, page 560, col. 1.

The land of souls.

Many of the Indian speculations respecting the condition of souls in a future state are given in the History of Brazil. A description of a Keltic Island of the Blessed, as drest up by Ossian Macpherson, may be found in the notes to Madoc. A Tonga one is thus described in the very curious and valuable work of Mr Mariner.

<< The Tonga people universally and positively believe in the existence of a large island lying at a considerable distance to the N. W. of their own islands, which they consider to be the place of residence of their gods, and

The most remarkable mode of superstition I remember to have met with, is one which is mentioned by the Bishop of Santa Marta, in his History of the Nuevo Reyno de Granada. He tells us, that « the Pijaos of the Nuevo Reyno worshipped nothing visible or invisible, except the spirits of those whom they killed for the purpose of deifying them. For they thought that if an innocent person were put to death he became a god, and in that capacity would be grateful to those who were the authors of his apotheosis. For this reason they used to catch strangers and kill them; not thinking one of their own horde, or of their enemies, could be esteemed innocent, and therefore fitting. A woman or a child would do. But after a few months they held it necessary to make a new god, the old one either having lost his power, or changed his place, or perhaps by that time discharged himself of his debt of gratitude.-Piedrahita, p. 12.

Note 15, page 559, col. 2.

And once there was a way to that good land,

For in mid earth a wonderous tree there grew.

« Los Mocobis fingiau un Arbol, que en su idioma llamaban Nalliagdigua, de altura tan desmedida que llegaba desde la tierra al ciclo. Por él de rama en rama ganando siempre mayor elevacion subian las almas á pescar de un rio y lagunas muy grandes, que abundaban de pescado regaladísimo. Pero un dia que el alma de una vieja no pudo pescar cosa alguna, y los pescadores la negaron el socorro de una limosua para su mantenimiento, se irritó tanto contra la nacion Mocobi que, transfigurada en Capiguara tomó el exercicio de roer el Arbol por donde subian al cielo, y no desistió hasta derribarlo en tierra con increible sentimiento y daño irreparable de toda la nacion,>>

This legend is contained in a manuscript history of Paraguay, the Rio de la Piata, and Tucuman. For the use of the first volume (a transcript of which is in my possession), I am beholden, as for other civilities of the same kind, to Mr Thomas Kinder. This portion of the work contains a good account of the native tribes;

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is supposed to be much larger than all their own islands put together; to be well stocked with all kinds of useful and ornamental plants always in a state of high perfection, and always bearing the richest fruits and the most beautiful flowers, according to their respective natures; that when these fruits or flowers are plucked others immediately occupy their place, and that the whole atmosphere is filled with the most delightful fragrance that the imagination can conceive, proceeding from these immortal plants. The island is also well stocked with the most beautiful birds of all imaginable kinds, as well as with abundance of hogs, all of which are immortal, unless they are killed to provide food for the hotooas or gods; but the moment a hog or bird is killed, another living hog or bird immediately comes into existence to supply its place, the same as with the fruits and flowers; and this, as far as they know or suppose, is the only mode of propagation of plants and animals. The island of Bolotoo is supposed to be so far off as to render it dangerous for their canoes to | attempt going there; and it is supposed moreover that even if they were to succeed in reaching so far, unless it happened to be the particular will of the gods, they would be sure to miss it. They give, however, an account of a Tonga canoe, which, in her return from the Feejee islands a long time ago, was driven by stress of wheater to Bolotoo: ignorant of the place where they were, and being much in want of provisions, and seeing the country abound in all sorts of fruit, the crew landed, and proceeded to pluck some bread-fruit, but to their unspeakable astonishment they could no more lay hold of it than if it were a shadow. They walked through the trunks of the trees, and passed through the substance of the houses (which were built like those of Tonga), without feeling any resistance. They at length saw some of the Hotooas, who passed through the substance of their bodies as if there was nothing there. The Hotooas recommended them to go away immediately, as they had no proper food for them, and mised them a fair wind and a speedy passage. They accordingly put directly to sea, and in two days, sailing with the utmost velocity, they arrived at Hamoa, (the Navigator's Island,) at which place they wanted to touch

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