r heads all verging to a common
centre, over the wasted frame of the dying man; they were crying
bitterly, and scratching their cheeks, foreheads, and noses, with
their nails, until the blood trickled slowly from the wounds. The men,
meanwhile, were preparing their spears for the fight, which was expected
to take place respecting the two wives of Mulligo, the title of his heir
being disputed. Other native females soon began to arrive in small
parties, each one carrying her long stick in her hand, and each party
marching slowly after the eldest woman belonging to it. When they came
within about thirty or forty yards of the hut of the dying man, they
raised the most piteous cries, and hurrying their pace, moved rapidly to
the place where the other women were seated, recalling to the mind of
one acquainted with the Bible, that custom alluded to by Jeremiah (chap.
ix. 17, 18). As they came up to the bark hut, many of them struck it
violently with their sticks, producing by the blow a dull hollow sound,
and then, after joining the assembled circle, chanting mournfully the
usual songs on these occasions. Then, suddenly, one of the women in a
frenzy would start up, and standing in front of the hut, while she waved
her stick violently in the air, would chant forth curses against the
sorcerers, who, as she believed, had been the cause of Mulligo's
sufferings. It was strange to watch the effect of these wild chants upon
the savage countenances of the men; one while they sat in mournful
silence; again they grasped firmly and quivered their spears; and by and
by a general "Ee-Ee," pronounced in their throat, with the lips closed,
burst forth in token of approbation at some affecting part of the
speech.

Time wore on; each withered beldame by turns addressed the party,
while the poor creature, whose dying moments were thus disturbed, was
gradually sinking. At last he ceased to live, and at that moment an old
woman started up, and with grief and rage, poured forth her curses upon
the _Boyl-yas_, and tore the hut in which Mulligo had been lying to
pieces, saying, "This is now no good." Her proceedings excited the
feelings of the men, and at last Moon-dee, the most violent of them, was
on the point of spearing one of the wives of the deceased, but he was
withheld by some of the women. The cause of Moon-dee's anger was
afterwards thus explained. About two or three months before this time,
a cloak belonging to Mulligo's brother had been