Thk Fatk ok thk Widuws Amon<;8t thk Ba-koxga. 365 



widow, of euiiist', \vei'[>s more loudly tlian eveiyhody else, and her 

 relatives, the hnkomrnua (paients-iii-Iaw), make chorus with iier and 

 cry: "Our child has fallen into misfortune! Now the cold has come 

 for her I She will learn to know the cold water ! " [t is an allusion to 

 the kind of life which the new widow will have to live. Every moiii- 

 ing and eveninii; she must ijo to the lake or to the pool with her com- 

 panions to have the whole body washed till the days of her purification 

 are completed. 



There is indeed a purification to undergo, l)ecause, according to 

 native conception, death is filth, and those who are mostly infected by 

 it are the grave-diggers and the first w-ife of the deceased. 



The first act of purification is performed just after the burial. 

 Tiie widow, surrounded by other women, goes to the pool, and there 

 all must wash their bodies. Most of the mourners go back home at 

 once. 



But the widow remains there with other widows who have lost 

 their husbands in former years. These women form a kind of secret 

 societv, antl perform the following rites with great mystery : They sit 

 down on the main road, of which they take possession as it were. One 

 of them makes then an incision with a knife or a bit of glass in the 

 inguinal region on the left side of the new member of their association. 

 If the blood flows freely it is a good sign. The women are satisfied, 

 and find there a proof that there was a good understanding between 

 husband and wife ; if no blood comes out, it is a bad omen. Then one 

 of them lights a little fire with a handful of dry grass which has been 

 taken from the roof of the deceased's hut ; she throws on it a little 

 dung coming from a cock (not a hen !) and the widow must expose botli 

 hands to the smoke produced by this disgusting mixture. Wliat is the 

 meaning of these rites I Nobody knows. At any rate they are most 

 sacred, and the mystery whicli surrounds them must not be disclosed to 

 anybody who is not a widow. Even an old woman, if she has not lost 

 her husband, is considered as a child and is not admitted to that corn- 

 pan}'. Should a traveller pass on the road at that very moment, and, 

 .seeing those women squatted on the ground, come near them and see 

 what they are doing, he has committed an act which is "taboo" {])t<a 

 yila), and he will certainl}- meet with misfortune l)efore long : death 

 will perhaps have occurred amongst his people at home, and ho will find 

 hi-^ \ illage in mourning. The wise man, seeing such a suspicious sight, 

 would have stopped far away till they left the place, or made a long 

 circuit to avoid them. 



tree, Srlcror(fri/n caffra), for which they have a lireat veneration ; tliey place 

 them in the right iiand of the corpse, which has remained outside of the mat. 

 Wlien they hring back tlie earth into the grave, tliey stop just wlien it reaches 

 those branches ; they take them gently from tlie hand of the deceased and 

 put tliem somewhere near. The grave is Klled in and the principal digger 

 makes then a sacrihce with those branches. He turns them round his head in 

 .spitting on the grave and praying the new god, "(lo in peace and leave 

 peace,"' &c. Su(Uleidy he throws the branches on tlie grave, and the mou 

 inir cries bejriii. 



