one or other of the Priests must give his Attendance, to take care of
the dead Bodies. So great an Honour and Veneration have these ignorant
and unpolisht People for their Princes even after they are dead."

It should be added that, in the writer's opinion, this account and
others like it are somewhat apocryphal, and it has been copied and
recopied a score of times.

According to Pinkerton [Footnote: Collection of Voyages, 1812, vol.
XIII, p 39.], the Werowanco preserved their dead as follows:

"... By him is commonly the sepulchre of their Kings. Their bodies are
first bowelled, then dried upon hurdles till they be very dry, and so
about the most of their joints and neck they hang bracelets, or chains
of copper, pearl, and such like, as they used to wear. Their inwards
they stuff with copper beads, hatchets, and such trash. Then lap they
them very carefully in white skins, and so roll them in mats for their
winding-sheets. And in the tomb, which is an arch made of mats, they
lay them orderly. What remaineth of this kind of wealth their Kings
have, they set at their feet in baskets. These temples and bodies are
kept by their priests.

"For their ordinary burials, they dig a deep hole in the earth with
sharp stakes, and the corpse being lapped in skins and mats with their
jewels they lay them upon sticks in the ground, and so cover them with
earth. The burial ended, the women being painted all their faces with
black coal and oil do sit twenty-four hours in the houses mourning and
lamenting by turns with such yelling and howling as may express their
great passions....