This well-known
precaution was adopted to prevent the speedy exhumation of the body by
some of the carnivorous beasts of the prairie, whose instinct was sure
to guide them to the spot. Even the rapacious birds appeared to
comprehend the nature of the ceremony, for, mysteriously apprised that
the miserable victim was now about to be abandoned by the human race,
they once more began to make their airy circuits above the place,
screaming, as if to frighten the kinsmen from their labour of caution
and love.
Ishmael stood, with folded arms, steadily watching the manner in which
this necessary duty was performed, and when the whole was completed,
he lifted his cap to his sons, to thank them for their services, with
a dignity that would have become one much better nurtured. Throughout
the whole of a ceremony, which is ever solemn and admonitory, the
squatter had maintained a grave and serious deportment. His vast
features were visibly stamped with an expression of deep concern; but
at no time did they falter, until he turned his back, as he believed
for ever, on the grave of his first-born.
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