About five o’clock in the morning, coffee, bread, biscuits, and cheese, are handed round, and then the company depart, until such hour as the funeral is arranged to take place. Some of the nearest friends or relations, however, remain all the time, and of course partake of the different meals provided; for there is one thing worthy of note in these negro-funerals—grief never spoils their appetites. If the person dies in the country, it is sometimes the practice to bring them into town during the night; at other times, the funeral takes place in whatever part of the island they may chance to reside in. The company assemble to a town-funeral about four o’clock, and (a multiplicity of chairs having been borrowed from the neighbours for the occasion) seat themselves, the women in the house, and the men on the shady side of the street; but as for thinking of _death_, and its important consequences, it is as far from them as if they were at a ball or a play. They laugh, they joke, they make bargains, and they discuss the news of the day, and think no more of the inanimate corpse within, than if it had been a waxen figure, or an ideal form. I am sorry to add, that it is not the negroes alone who exhibit this utter thoughtlessness of heart upon these melancholy occurrences, as I shall have further to mention when I come to speak of the superior grades of society. But to resume our subject: about the time the company are assembled, and the bearers arrayed in white or black cotton scarfs and hat-bands, according to the age of the deceased, the hearse arrives; for, it is to be remarked, it is but seldom that a funeral takes place in Antigua without the attendance of one of those “carriages for the dead.” The hearses are rather differently constructed from those used in England, having more the appearance of a van painted black. There is a top to them in a kind of half-pyramidal form, mounted by a few brown-black or dirty white feathers; the body of the hearse is partly railed round, so that the coffin can be seen, and a door opens behind. They are drawn by two sorry horses, one perhaps white and the other brown; or, as is often the case, one a horse about twelve hands high, its companion a Canadian poney, rough and shaggy as one of the Shetland breed. Another observable fact is, that these animals are generally as opposite in tempers as they are in appearance, so that while one is wishful of going to the east, the other has an incontrollable desire of proceeding in the opposite direction. This, as may be supposed, leads to a violent contention between them and the driver keeps the company standing in the streets and often endangers even the safety of the vehicle. A stranger could not fail to notice all these particularities, and also the indecent manner in which the hearse is driven to the house where the corpse is, and upon its return from the place of interment— namely, as fast as the two horses can possibly be urged.