thought it was well worth a little trouble to hear these savage sounds
under such circumstances. Our guides shouted in return, and gradually the
approaching cries came nearer and nearer.

CURIOUS SUPERSTITION. CEREMONIES.

I was however wholly unprepared for the scene that was about to take
place. A sort of procession came up, headed by two women down whose
cheeks tears were streaming. The eldest of these came up to me and,
looking for a moment at me, said, "Gwa, gwa, bundo bal," "Yes, yes, in
truth it is him;" and then, throwing her arms round me, cried bitterly,
her head resting on my breast; and, although I was totally ignorant of
what their meaning was, from mere motives of compassion I offered no
resistance to her caresses, however disagreeable they might be, for she
was old, ugly, and filthily dirty; the other younger one knelt at my
feet, also crying.

At last the old lady, emboldened by my submission, deliberately kissed me
on each cheek, just in the manner a French woman would have done; she
then cried a little more and, at length relieving me, assured me that I
was the ghost of her son who had some time before been killed by a
spear-wound in his breast. The younger female was my sister; but she,
whether from motives of delicacy or from any imagined backwardness on my
part, did not think proper to kiss me.

My new mother expressed almost as much delight at my return to my family
as my real mother would have done had I been unexpectedly restored to
her. As soon as she left me my brothers and father (the old man who had
previously been so frightened) came up and embraced me after their
manner, that is, they threw their arms round my waist, placed their right