The body of the deceased is wrapped up in a cloth, closely sewed around it, and the head is covered with a white cap of cotton, which is the colour universally adopted in mourning. The relatives of the deceased bedaub themselves from head to foot with white clay, upon which they form the most disgusting figures, while scarcely a leg or an arm exhibits the same feature. I have even seen serpents and other frightful animals delineated with great accuracy on many parts of the body, which gives them a most hideous appearance during the season of mourning. When the corps has been washed, and put into a white cloth of cotton, of the manufacture of the country, the whole is inclosed in a mat, and laid out in state. The corps is placed over the grave upon four sticks across, and after one of the nearest relatives has collected all the finery with which the deceased was accustomed to decorate himself, and that also which remains among his family, he asks him, with expressions of sorrow, if he wants such and such an article for his comfort in the other world, in which he is accompanied by the remainder of his family and friends, who join in _making cry,_ or more property speaking, in dancing and rejoicing. The following night the dance and song is continued with demonstrations of mirth and glee, and are kept up every successive night during that moon; and if the deceased has been of consequence in his tribe, these extravagant acts of lamentation continue for months together. _On the Amusements, Musical Instruments, &c. of the Africans._ Upon all occasions of mirth or sorrow, the dance is uniformly introduced, with monotonous songs, sometimes tender and agreeable, at other times savage and ferocious, but always accompanied by a slow movement; and it may with propriety be said, that all the nights in Africa are spent in dancing; for after the setting of the sun, every village resounds with songs, and music; and I have often listened to them with attention and pleasure, during the tranquil evenings of the dry season. Villages a league distant from each other frequently perform the same song, and alternately change it, for hours together. While this harmonic correspondence continues, and the inhabitants of the neighbouring villages chaunt their couplets, the youth of both sexes listen with the greatest attention and pleasure. Among the several kinds of instruments of music which accompany the ceremonies of mourning or mirth among the Africans, the drum is the principal. It is made from a hard thin wood, about three feet long, which is covered with a skin distended to the utmost. They strike it with the fingers of the right hand collected together, which serves to beat time in all their dances. Among the Foulahs and Soosees they have a kind of flute, made of a hard reed, which produces sounds both unmusical and harsh: but all the Africans of the Windward district are the most barbarous musicians that can be conceived.