The lake just mentioned is named after the Cereses or Serays, some tribes of negroes who inhabit its banks: they form, as in every other part where they establish themselves, a sort of democratic republic, without knowing the principles of that kind of government; but following in this case their instinct and wishes, they never choose to acknowledge any master. They live in a complete state of nature, without any other rules than what she inspires: they have no idea of the divinity, and are persuaded that the soul dies with the body. They go almost entirely naked, speak a particular language, which differs from that of all their neighbours, and never intermarry with the other negroes, whom they dislike to such a degree, that they seem to be as averse from trading with them, as they would be from a contagion. One of the principal traits in their character is the resentment which they bear for offences, which they never pardon: and if they do not take vengeance themselves, they transmit their hatred to their children, and it subsists in the family till reparation be made for the real or supposed injury. In other respects they are a good kind of people, mild and simple in their manners, and hospitable even to officiousness. They give a particularly kind reception to the whites who pass through their country, carefully cultivate their lands, and raise a great number of cattle. They have a great respect for the dead, whom they inter without their villages, in round or square spots, like those which they inhabit. After exposing the body on a bed they plaister the stakes, which form the square of interment, with a kind of clay, and also encompass it with a wall about a foot thick, which ends in a pointed roof, and incloses the spot. This collection of burying grounds resembles another village, and is often larger than the inhabited one to which it belongs. These people do not know how to write; but to distinguish the bodies which rest in these little huts, they put a bow and arrow on those which contain the men, while the women’s sepulchres have at top a pestle and mortar, being the instruments which they use to pound their rice and millet. In other respects, as they marry amongst each other, and thus form only one family: they have no object in transmitting to posterity the names of the dead or their parentage.