304
STATE OF MORALS
or imaginary, of the deceased; deplored his death, and commended his soul to the guardianship of saints and angels. From the plaintive tones in which it was uttered, amidst the darkness and stillness of the night, it seemed as though death were attended with new terrors, and the passage to the grave enveloped in a gloom, deeper even than that in which fancy is wont to shroud it. When, on the following morning, the body was carried to the cemetery, amidst an immense concourse of people, the chanting women were still in attendance ; and though frequently interrupted by the deep groans, or loud, sudden screams, of persons in the crowd, they ceased not their mournful song till the corpse was committed to the ground.— This practice, it was said, was founded on the supposition that the soul, on its separation from the body, hovered in disquietude about it; and the object, it was added, in chanting the dirge, was to lay the troubled spirit to rest. It remains only to take a view of the state of morals among the Haytians, during the reign of this celebrated chief. And in order to form a correct opinion on this subject, it will be necessary to bear in mind the demoralizing effects of that system to which they