deceased father is being wrapped round and round with cloth, two fathoms of the burial cloth are given to each child, and that is called "Mvindu a ese," (lit. Dirt of or for the father, i.e. Mourning for the father), and those two fathoms each are all the children inherit.

When a person dies, it is the custom for the women belonging to the deceased's family to gather from the surrounding towns to assist at the mourning. For this they will neglect their farms, children, and husbands, and will crowd into the house where the corpse is, and there sit day after day giving advice to the chief mourner and praising the dead. So fond are they of attending a funeral that they will rake up a relationship to the dead, and, failing that, will say: "Well, he (or she) is a relative of my particular friend." Men, to show their sorrow, will give cloth to wind the corpse in for burial.

Supposing it is a man who is dead, the wife has to sleep on the ground close to the corpse, which is so arranged on a mat that the fluids of the rotting body drain into a basin. The woman has to run her finger frequently over the body to press out the moisture, she has to empty the basin when full, and, when she goes to eat, she is not allowed to wash her hands. This process she continues until the body is thoroughly shrivelled up. Should she show any reluctance in performing these offices for the dead, she is urged on by the women, and reminded by them that he was a good husband, who treated her well and supplied her with good cloths, etc. The man has to operate in the same way on the body of his deceased wife. To fail in rendering these last rites to the dead is to cover oneself with shame, and be accused of heartlessness.

After the fluids have drained from the body, the corpse is placed on a shelf, a fire is lit beneath it, and it is thoroughly dried. Sometimes the corpse is kept for two

When for some reason it is not advisable to keep the body in the house, a hole is dug, the corpse is tied up in a mat, and the bundle is suspended from a pole laid across the hole. Sticks and palm fronds are then laid over the hole, and earth thrown over all to keep the smell down. There the body remains until the family is ready to bury it properly. The head is always buried towards the rising sun. The body is taken out by the ordinary door and prepared for burial outside the house. A chief's body is taken over all the paths of the town before the fronts of all the houses, for his spirit to say good-bye to everybody in the town.

The owner of each house has to fire a salute as the corpse passes. Sometimes the men carrying the corpse pretend that it will not leave the town, and a sham struggle ensues between them and the body to get it to the cemetery.

At the funeral a crowd gathers, drums are beaten, ivory trumpets are played, much gunpowder is fired off, and friends bring cloth to wind the body in, and help to pay the funeral expenses. If the deceased was a man of importance, the family will have been buying up goats for two, three, or even five, years previous to the burial. With the invitation to the funeral one or two goats are sent, according to the importance of the guest invited. The invitation includes the man's wives (any number between five and thirty) and retinue of slaves, servants, and followers. The buying up of these invitation goats and the laying in of a stock of pigs, sheep, goats, and other kinds of food, with which to feast the crowd, will take the family many years, and hence the delay in burying the corpse.

In 1882 I attended the funeral of a man who had died about thirteen years before. Nearly 1000 persons were at the ceremony. It was a wild, drunken feast.

The people invited give cloth, blankets, beads, and any

sympathy, yet these gifts may not pay the expenses of the four or five days' funeral festivities, and many a family has been thus made bankrupt, and obliged to sell into slavery several of its members to clear itself of debt.

I remember the case of a head man at San Salvador whose sister was married to the king; when she died, Dom Miguel, the brother, was graciously allowed to bury her. He had to bury her as a queen should be buried. The expenses were so great, and the gifts so small in comparison, that he was financially ruined for life.

The spirit of the deceased is supposed to hover about, or in, the body until it is buried. (Sometimes, through the swelling of the body from putrefaction, the strings and tapes round it crack and break. When the mourning women hear these noises they rush out of the hut helter skelter in great fear, as they think the spirit is about to raise the man to life again.) This common incident indicates that the spirit is believed to be in or near the unburied corpse. The grand funeral is to satisfy the departed spirit that it is properly respected, and to please it so that it will not return to bewitch to sickness and death those left behind. The man while alive, and his spirit when he is dead, desire above all things a grand entrance into the spirit world,-plenty of gun firing, shouting, trumpet blowing, and women musically wailing, so that the spirits will say (to put it in the words of a native): "Hallo! who is this coming, about whom they are making so much noise up above?" and they will gather to see who it is and welcome him. Thus the status of the departed one in the next world depends on his family burying him grandly, and their comfort in this world depends on so appeasing him with a great funeral that he will not return to trouble them for neglect and disrespect.

she can again marry. If it is her first husband who has died, she has to take to a running stream his bed and one or two articles he commonly used. The bed is put in the middle of the stream and his articles placed on it. The woman then washes herself well in the stream, and afterwards sits on the bed. The nganga goes to her and dips her three times in the water, and dresses her, and the bed and articles are broken and thrown down the stream to float away. She is led out of the stream, and a raw egg is broken and she swallows it; a toad is then killed, and some of the blood is rubbed on her lips; and a fowl is killed, and hung by the road side. These sacrifices having been made to the spirit of the departed, she is free to return to her town. On arriving there, she sits on the ground and stretches her legs before her, and her deceased husband's brother steps over them. She is then free to marry. These ceremonies are not observed after the death of any but the first husband.

The man must follow the same rites after the death of his first wife, or otherwise no woman would dare to marry him. When the man returns to the town, his deceased wife's sister steps over his legs. The man need not wait a year or more as the woman does, but can marry as soon as the wife is buried and the above ceremony performed.

Hunting proper (called veta in some places, wela in others) begins in September and ends in November. During these months the grass is short, because in July and August the old, tall grass has been burnt to the ground, and the new grass has not reached any height. At the beginning of the hunting season the hunters send for an "nganga nkongo" (medicine man of the hunting fetish) to make a charm for them which will give them good luck in killing all kinds of game. This fetish charm retains its power for the whole year. The nganga procures some camwood, some leaves (of the Lupemba

parrots' feathers, some cowries, some wood ashes, a foreleg of a bat, some small shot, and some native peppers. These are thoroughly cut up and well mixed, and each hunter fills his small antelope's horn with the mixture and seals the opening with a little rubber.

When a renowned hunter dies they are very careful to note well the position of his grave. To ensure the place being known, the hair of the great hunter is cut off and buried near the grave, and a large stone is laid on top of the buried hair. When such a hunter is dying a thread from his "mbadi" (native-made cloth from palm or pine-apple fibres) is drawn out and tied round the forehead or arms of a selected young man, who then becomes a "kimpovela" (one who speaks to another on behalf of someone, an advocate). The "kimpovela" can only marry one wife, and he must never beat her or he will lose his power. If he wants more than one "nkaza" (wife), the extra ones are called "makangu" (lovers, sweethearts).

When the hunters have made their charms, they then visit the grave of a renowned hunter. The "kimpovela” goes first and kneels down with his face towards the hunters, and his back to the grave. The hunters approach him slowly, stopping every few steps to clap their hands; when they reach the kneeling "kimpovela" they spread out and sit round the grave. They have with them a calabash of palm wine, which is put on the ground, and their guns also are laid down. The "kimpovela" turns towards the grave, and, shaking his rattle repeatedly, he prays thus: "Wafwa kia meso, kwafwa kia matu ko, o matu nkelo! Twizidi ku lumbu, twizidi kufukamena, ova wakala oku 'vata, dia wadidenge, nua wanumwenenge, owau twasala fwa langala; se utukayila nkento ye mbakala" (You are blind but your ears are not deaf. Oh, ears hear well! we have come to you, we come