{Indian Funeral Sermon.}
Thus This Orator Runs On, Highly Extolling The Dead Man,
For His Valour, Conduct, Strength, Riches, And Good-Humour;
And Enumerating His Guns, Slaves And Almost Every Thing
He Was Possess'd Of, When Living.
After which, he addresses himself
to the People of that Town or Nation, and bids them supply
the dead
Man's Place, by following his steps, who, he assures them,
is gone into the Country of Souls, (which they think lies a great way off,
in this World, which the Sun visits, in his ordinary Course)
and that he will have the Enjoyment of handsome young Women,
great Store of Deer to hunt, never meet with Hunger, Cold or Fatigue,
but every thing to answer his Expectation and Desire.
This is the Heaven they propose to themselves; but, on the contrary,
for those Indians that are lazy, thievish amongst themselves,
bad Hunters, and no Warriours, nor of much Use to the Nation,
to such they allot, in the next World, Hunger, Cold, Troubles, old ugly Women
for their Companions, with Snakes, and all sorts of nasty Victuals to feed on.
Thus is mark'd out their Heaven and Hell. {Indian Traditions.}
After all this Harangue, he diverts the People with some of their Traditions,
as when there was a violent hot Summer, or very hard Winter;
when any notable Distempers rag'd amongst them; when they were at War
with such and such Nations; how victorious they were; and what were
the Names of their War-Captains. To prove the times more exactly,
he produces the Records of the Country, which are a Parcel of Reeds,
of different Lengths, with several distinct Marks, known to none
but themselves; by which they seem to guess, very exactly,
at Accidents that happen'd many Years ago; nay two or three Ages or more.
The Reason I have to believe what they tell me, on this Account,
is, because I have been at the Meetings of several Indian Nations;
and they agreed, in relating the same Circumstances, as to Time,
very exactly; {A hard Winter.} as, for Example, they say,
there was so hard a Winter in Carolina, 105 years ago,
that the great Sound was frozen over, and the Wild Geese came into the Woods
to eat Acorns, and that they were so tame, (I suppose, through Want)
that they kill'd abundance in the Woods, by knocking them on the Head
with Sticks.
But, to return to the dead Man. When this long Tale is ended,
by him that spoke first; perhaps, a second begins another long Story;
so a third, and fourth, if there be so many Doctors present;
which all tell one and the same thing. At last, the Corps is brought away
from that Hurdle to the Grave, by four young Men, attended by the Relations,
the King, old Men, and all the Nation. {Interment in the Grave.}
When they come to the Sepulcre, which is about six Foot deep,
and eight Foot long, having at each end (that is, at the Head and Foot)
a Light-Wood, or Pitch-Pine Fork driven close down the sides of the Grave,
firmly into the Ground; (these two Forks are to contain a Ridge-Pole,
as you shall understand presently) before they lay the Corps into the Grave,
they cover the bottom two or three times over with Bark of Trees,
then they let down the Corps (with two Belts, that the Indians
carry their Burdens withal) very leisurely, upon the said Barks;
then they lay over a Pole of the same Wood, in the two Forks, and having
a great many Pieces of Pitch-Pine Logs, about two Foot and a half long,
they stick them in the sides of the Grave down each End,
and near the Top thereof, where the other Ends lie on the Ridge-Pole,
so that they are declining like the Roof of a House.
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