Again he tells us—“A young Mandingo negro was celebrating the funeral of his mother, who had been dead about a fortnight. On the very day of her death I had been attracted to the neighbourhood by the sound of the music. I saw in the court-yard two large drums, made like ours, and some persons were beating them and clashing cymbals. The cymbals consist of two pieces of iron, about five inches long and two and a half wide. The two negroes who were beating the drums held these cymbals in their left hands. Each of the pieces of iron has a ring, one is passed over the thumb and the other over the forefinger, and by a movement of the hand they are struck together in regular time. The women of the neighbourhood brought little presents by way of showing respect to the deceased. A large circular basket was placed exactly in the centre of the yard to receive the offerings. The women having deposited their presents assumed a grave look, and ranging themselves in a file, marched along, keeping time to the music, and making motions with their hands and heads expressive of sorrow. Sometimes they beat time by clapping their hands while they sang a melancholy song. The scene continued the whole of the day. I enquired whether the presents which had been brought in honour of the deceased were to be buried with her, for the Bambaras observe this superstitious custom.
“Four little boys, whose bodies were covered with leaves of trees well arranged, and whose heads were adorned with plumes of ostrich feathers, held in each hand a round basket with a handle, in which were bits of iron and pebbles. They kept time with the music, jumping and shaking their baskets, the contents of which produced a strange jingling. There were two leaders of the band who regulated the intervals when the performers were to play. They wore beautiful mantles of cotton network, very white and fringed round. On their heads they had black caps edged with scarlet and adorned with cowries and ostrich feathers. The musicians stood at the foot of a baobab. The assemblage was numerous and all were well dressed. The men were tricked out in all their finery. I saw several with little coussabes of a rusty colour and almost covered with amulets rolled up in little pieces of yellow cloth. Some were armed with muskets, and others with bows and arrows, as if prepared for combat. They also wore large round straw hats of their own native manufacture. They walked all together round the assembled circle, leaping and dancing to the sound of the music, which I thought very agreeable. Sometimes they appeared furious, firing their muskets and running about with threatening looks. The men with bows and arrows appeared as if on the point of rushing on an enemy, and they pretended to shoot their arrows. The men were followed by a number of women, all neatly dressed, having about their shoulders white pagones, or mantles of native cloth, which they tossed about from side to side, while they walked to the sound of the music and observed profound silence. Those who were fatigued withdrew and their places were immediately supplied by others. When they left the party they ran away very fast and were followed by some of the musicians, who accompanied them playing as far as their huts, where they received a small present. About the middle of the festival all the male relatives of the deceased made their appearance, dressed in white. They walked in two files, each carrying in his hand a piece of flat iron which they struck with another smaller piece. They walked round the assembly, keeping time, and singing a melancholy air. They were followed by women who repeated the same song in chorus and at intervals clapped their hands. Next came the son of the deceased, who was well dressed and armed with a sabre. He did not appear much affected, and after having walked round the assembly he withdrew, and the warlike dancers were renewed. The whole festival was arranged by two old men, relatives of the deceased. They addressed the assembled party and delivered an eulogium on the good qualities of their departed kinswoman. The festival ended with a grand feast, during which the goat which was killed in the morning was eaten. I remarked with pleasure the good order which prevailed throughout the entertainment, which was kept up with great merriment. The young people danced almost the whole of the night. The son of the deceased withdrew from the supper which he had provided for his friends, and came to partake of ours.”
In Sierra Leone when any one dies, if it be a man, the body is stretched out and put in order by men; if a woman, that office is performed by females. Before the corpse is carried out for interment, it is generally put upon a kind of bier composed of sticks formed like a ladder, but having two flat pieces of board for the head and feet to rest upon. This is placed upon the heads of two men, while a third standing before the body, and having in his hand a length of reed called cattop, proceeds to interrogate it respecting the cause of its death. He first advances a step or two towards the corpse, shakes the reed over it, and immediately steps back; he then asks a variety of questions, to which assent is signified by the corpse impelling the bearers, as is supposed, towards the man with the reed, while a negative is implied by its producing a kind of rolling motion. It is first asked, “Was your death caused by God on account of your great age and infirmities, or (if a young person) because he liked to take you?” If this question be answered in the affirmative, which is seldom if ever the case, the inquest closes and the burial takes place; if not, the examiner proceeds to enquire, “Was your death caused by your bad actions?” (in other words, on account of your being a witch). If assent be signified, the next question is “By whose griffee (witchery) was it caused—was it by such an one’s or such an one’s?” naming a number of persons in succession, until, at last, an affirmative reply is obtained. The reply generally attributes to the griffee of the head man of the place the merit of destroying the man,—a circumstance which enhances the dread of the power of the head man’s demon, and is supposed to operate in deterring others from evil practices. If it should appear, however, that the decease was not put to death for being “bad,” an expression synonymous with being a witch, the body is asked, “Was your death caused by a man or a woman in such a town (naming a number of towns), belonging to such a family,” naming as many as the enquirer chooses, until an answer has been obtained which fixes the guilt of killing the deceased by witchcraft on one or more individuals. These, if they have friends to plead for them, are allowed the privilege of appealing to one of their witchcraft ordeals in proof of their innocence; but if not, they are sold. A confession of the crime is also followed by being sold for slaves.
The reader has already been made aware of the many curious ceremonies finding favour at Old Kalabar, but on the authority of Mr. Hutchinson, who was frequently an eye-witness of them, the rites connected with their funeral obsequies are the most singular of all:
“At the death of ‘Iron Bar,’ a very respectable trader, and of the late king Archibongo, I saw the absurdity of these rites carried out to their fullest extent. At ‘Iron Bar’s,’ as I went into the yard, there was a dense crowd gathered round what was supposed to be his grave, which was made in the room where he died, and sunk to a depth of ten or twelve feet, that it might hold all the things put into it for his use in the next world. At the head of his grave a palm oil light was burning with a livid flame, and cast a dim shade over a man who had descended into it for the purpose of arranging his furniture—brass pans, copper rods, mugs, jugs, pots, ewers, tureens, plates, knives, forks, spoons, soap, looking-glasses, and a heap of Manchester cloth, all impaired in their integrity by a slight fracture or a tear. In the evening I visited the place again. The grave was filled up and levelled. Over it was placed a number of mats, on which were squatted a score of women. In all the apartments of the court numbers of the soft sex were in a like position, and kept up the most dismal and dolorous mourning it is possible for the imagination to conceive. I find it out of my power to convey any idea of the sensation it communicated to me. It was not harsh, it was not loud, it was not crying, nor was it shrieking; it bore no resemblance to an Irish wake, or to the squalling of a congregation of cats; but it was a puling, nauseating, melancholy howl, that would have turned my stomach long before it could have affected my brain. Over the grave, and suspended by a string from the roof, was a living cock, tied up by his legs, with its beak pointed downward. There is always a hole left in the side of the grave, through which, from time to time, rum or mimbo is poured for the spirit’s refreshment. With this there are also erected, within the house, or on the public road, or by the river’s side, what are called ‘devil houses,’ of which Iron Bar’s were good specimens. There were three structures of this kind constructed for him; one in the court attached to the house, one outside, and one on the beach, adjoining the canopy, overspread the bamboo roof placed to shelter the table, and over this again was a trio of parasols, two crimson and one blue, of silk material, and white fringe to each. Around the table were three large sofas, and at either end of the roof a pendant glass lamp. But the greatest display was on the table. In the centre was a large mirror, with a huge brass jug behind it; on either side, and covering every spare inch of the table, heaped over each other as high up as an equilibrium could be sustained, were monster jugs, decanters, tumblers, soup tureens, flower vases, bottles and mugs of all shapes and sizes, china and glass articles, as much as would stock a large shop; all being damaged like the articles placed in the graves, perhaps on the supposition that their materiality should be destroyed in order to allow the spirit to escape with them, for the ghostly company they were intended to serve, or perhaps, and more likely, to render them useless to any of the thieving fraternity, who in the practice of their science might stray in the road of these establishments. In another of the ‘devil-houses’ a quantity of cooked meat, cooked plaintain, and the pounded yam called foo-poo, were placed in calabashes for the refreshment of himself and those who were to be his fellow-travellers in the world of spirits. It shows clearly that they have a belief in a future existence, because these ‘devil-houses’ are always furnished as profusely as their means will allow, from the conviction that of whatever quality his comforts may have been to the defunct when he was in this world, they will be similar in the next. The houses erected for King Archibongo, to entertain his devil in, were superior in their furniture to those of Iron Bar. That on the beach, particularly, contained a quantity of the productions of native art. The women always go in mourning by painting patterns of deep black on their foreheads, and the men by covering their bodies over with ashes. When the mourning time is over a general smash is made of all the things in the devil house, the house itself is pulled down, and nothing but the wreck of matter left behind. Together with the widows and slaves, who in former times were sacrificed at the death of a gentleman, there were added to the list a number of persons who were accused by the friends of the deceased as being accessory to his death, and obliged to undergo what is called the ‘chop-nut’ test. They cannot believe, or at least they will not try to understand, how natural causes create disease, and attribute them and subsequent death to ‘ijod,’ or witchcraft. Hence a plan is adopted to find out the perpetrator by fixing on a number of persons, and compelling them to take a quantity of a poisonous nut, which is supposed to be innocuous if the accused be innocent, and to be fatal if he be guilty.”
In Madagascar, that dark “country with no God,” the burial rites are on a much more splendid and elaborate scale—at least as regards royalty—than would be expected, considering that the Malagaseys’ belief is that death is the end of all things, and the animated clay called man is of no more account than an empty earthen pitcher as soon as evil passions have ceased to stir it and it lies cold and still.
While Madame Pfieffer was sojourning at the court of Queen Ranavola, her majesty’s brother-in-law, Prince Razakaoatrino gave up the ghost, and was buried. “The death of this grand lord,” says Madame Pfieffer, “will give me an opportunity of seeing a new and interesting rite; for the funeral of such an exalted personage is conducted at Madagascar with the greatest solemnity.” After the body has been washed it is wrapped in a simbus of red silk, often to the number of several hundred, and none of which must cost less than ten piastres, though they generally cost much more. Thus enshrouded, the corpse is placed in a kind of coffin, and lies in state in the principal apartment of the house, under a canopy of red silks. Slaves crouch around it as closely as possible, with their hair hanging loose, and their heads bent down, in token of mourning. Each of them is furnished with a kind of fan to keep off the flies and mosquitoes from the deceased. This strange occupation continues day and night; and as high personages are frequently kept unburied for weeks, these slaves have to be continually relieved by others.
“During the time the corpse is lying under the canopy, envoys come from every caste of the nobility, and from every district of the country, accompanied by long trains of servants and slaves, to present tokens of condolence from themselves and in the names of those by whom they are sent. Each of the envoys brings an offering of money, varying according to his own fortune and the amount of popularity enjoyed by the deceased, from half a dollar to fifty or more. These presents are received by the nearest relation to the dead man, and are devoted to defraying the expenses of the burial, which often come to a very large sum; for besides the large number of simbus to be purchased, a good many oxen must be killed. All visitors and envoys stay until the day of the funeral, and are entertained, as well as their servants and slaves, at the expense of the heirs. When the funeral ceremonies extend over several weeks, and the number of guests is large, it may be easily imagined that a goodly stock of provisions is consumed, especially as the people of Madagascar, masters and servants, are valiant trenchermen when they feed at the cost of another. Thus at the death of the last commander of the army, the father of Prince Raharo, no fewer than fifteen hundred oxen were slain and eaten. But then this man had stood very high in the queen’s favour, and his funeral is recorded as the most splendid in the memory of man. He lay in state for three weeks, and young and old streamed in from the farthest corners of the kingdom to pay him the last honours.
“When the corpse is carried out of the house a few slaughtered oxen must be laid at the door, and the bearers have to step over their bodies. The period of lying in state, and of mourning generally, is fixed by the queen herself. For the prince in question the time was fixed at four days. If he had been a near relation of the queen—a brother or uncle—or one of her particular favourites, he would not have been buried under from ten to fourteen days, and the period of mourning would have extended to twenty or thirty days at least. The body is prevented from becoming offensive by the number of simbus in which it is wrapped.
“We did not follow the funeral procession, but saw it pass. Its extent was very great, and it consisted of nobles, officers, women, mourning women, and slaves in large numbers. From the highest to the lowest all wore their hair loose as a token of mourning; and with this loosened hair they looked so particularly ugly—so horribly hideous—that I had never seen anything like them among the ugliest races of America and India. The women especially, who let their hair grow longer than the men wear it, might have passed for scarecrows or furies.