The Principal Males In The Town Likewise Came To Pay Their Last Respects To Their Mistress, As Well As Her Grave-Digger, Who Prostrated Himself On The Ground Before Her.

Notwithstanding the representations and remonstrances of the priest, and the prayers of the venerable victim to her gods, for fortitude to undergo the dreadful ordeal, her resolution forsook her more than once.

She entered the yard twice to expire in the arms of her women, and twice did she lay aside the fatal draught, in order to take another walk, and gaze once more on the splendour of the sun and the glory of the heavens, for she could not bear the idea of losing sight of them forever. She was for some time restless and uneasy, and would gladly have run away from death, if she durst; for that imaginary being appeared to her in a more terrible light, than our pictures represent him with his shadowy form and fatal dart. Die she must, and she knew it; nevertheless she tenaciously clung to life till the very last moment. In the mean time her grave was preparing, and preparations were making for a wake at her funeral. She was to be buried in one of her own huts, the moment after the spirit had quitted the body, which was to be ascertained by striking the ground near which it might be lying at the time, when, if no motion or struggle ensued, the old woman was to be considered as dead.

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