Some of these were
in earthenware pots, generally broken; others lay strewn here and there,
while a heap in the centre showed that some form had originally been
observed in their disposition. This was explained by an extraordinary
custom, most rigidly observed by the Latookas. Should a man be killed in
battle the body is allowed to remain where it fell, and is devoured by
the vultures and hyenas; but should he die a natural death he is buried
in a shallow grave within a few feet of his own door, in the little
courtyard that surrounds each dwelling. Funeral dances are then kept up
in memory of the dead for several weeks, at the expiration of which time
the body, being sufficiently decomposed, is exhumed.
The bones are cleaned and are deposited in an earthenware jar, and
carried to a spot near the town which is regarded as the cemetery.
There is little difficulty in describing the toilette of the native,
that of the men being limited to the one covering of the head, the body
being entirely nude. It is curious to observe among these wild savages
the consummate vanity displayed in their head-dresses. Every tribe has a
distinct and unchanging fashion for dressing the hair, and so elaborate
is the coiffure that hair-dressing is reduced to a science.
