A Person Having Died In This Village, We Could Transact No Business
With The Chief Until The Funeral Obsequies Were Finished.
These occupy
about four days, during which there is a constant succession of dancing,
wailing, and feasting.
Guns are fired by day, and drums beaten by night,
and all the relatives, dressed in fantastic caps, keep up the ceremonies
with spirit proportionate to the amount of beer and beef expended.
When there is a large expenditure, the remark is often made afterward,
"What a fine funeral that was!" A figure, consisting chiefly
of feathers and beads, is paraded on these occasions,
and seems to be regarded as an idol.
Having met with an accident to one of my eyes by a blow from a branch
in passing through a forest, I remained some days here,
endeavoring, though with much pain, to draw a sketch of the country thus far,
to be sent back to Mr. Gabriel at Loanda. I was always anxious
to transmit an account of my discoveries on every possible occasion,
lest, any thing happening in the country to which I was going,
they should be entirely lost. I also fondly expected
a packet of letters and papers which my good angel at Loanda
would be sure to send if they came to hand, but I afterward found that,
though he had offered a large sum to any one who would return
with an assurance of having delivered the last packet he sent,
no one followed me with it to Cabango.
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