In A Few Minutes The Man Made His
Appearance, And Apologized For Having Nothing To Entertain Us With,
Saying That He Had Had A Fandango At His House The Night Before,
And The People Had Eaten And Drunk Up Everything.
"Oh yes!" said I, "Easter holydays?"
"No!" said he, with a singular expression to his face; "I had a
little daughter die the other day, and that's the custom of the
country."
Here I felt a little strangely, not knowing what to say, or whether
to offer consolation or no, and was beginning to retire, when he
opened a side door and told us to walk in. Here I was no less
astonished; for I found a large room, filled with young girls,
from three or four years of age up to fifteen and sixteen, dressed
all in white, with wreaths of flowers on their heads, and bouquets
in their hands. Following our conductor through all these girls,
who were playing about in high spirits, we came to a table, at the
end of the room, covered with a white cloth, on which lay a coffin,
about three feet long, with the body of his child. The coffin was
lined on the outside with white cloth, and on the inside with white
satin, and was strewed with flowers. Through an open door we saw,
in another room, a few elderly people in common dresses; while
the benches and tables thrown up in a corner, and the stained walls,
gave evident signs of the last night's "high go." Feeling, like
Garrick, between tragedy and comedy, an uncertainty of purpose
and a little awkwardness, I asked the man when the funeral would
take place, and being told that it would move toward the mission
in about an hour, took my leave.
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