I went to see and comfort him in his affliction, and finding
him swallowed up with sorrow, I said to him as soon as I saw him,
'God preserve you and grant you a long life.'
'Alas!' replied he, 'how do you think I should obtain that favour
you wish me? I have not above an hour to live.'
'Pray,' said I, 'do not entertain such a melancholy thought; I hope
it will not be so, but that I shall enjoy your company for many
years.'
'I wish you,' said he, 'a long life; but for me my days are at an
end, for I must be buried this day with my wife. This is a law
which our ancestors established in this island, and always observed
inviolably. The living husband is interred with the dead wife, and
the living wife with the dead husband. Nothing can save me; every
one must submit to this law.'
While he was entertaining me with an account of this barbarous
custom, the very hearing of which frightened me cruelly, his
kindred, friends and neighbours came in a body to assist at the
funerals. They put on the corpse the woman's richest apparel, as if
it had been her wedding-day, and dressed her with all her jewels;
then they put her into an open coffin, and lifting it up, began
their march to the place of burial.
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