366 Report 8.A.A. Advancement of Science. 



Now the other widows, having taken every bit of clothing from 

 their companion, tie a reed or a pahn thread around her waist. Tliey 

 hang to it some broad leaves, and with this ver}^ scanty garment they 

 bring her back home. She walks, surrounded by all the other widows. 

 Somebody warns the men to get away from the road, as they are not 

 allowed to see the procession. They flee and hide themselves in their 

 huts. In the meantime the mourning widow has reached the village. 

 She is led to the "discrowned" house of the deceased, which was her 

 house, -and is now but a grave.* She enters through the door for the 

 last time, and there shouts loudly her grief : " My husband I my hus- 

 band ! You have left me alone. What am I to do? What a mis- 

 fortune !" Then she goes out of the hut, not by the dooi', but by the 

 hole which has been made in the back wall to carry the corpse to the 

 grave. (It is "taboo" to let a dead body pass through the door.) 

 Behind the hut the friends of the widow are expecting her and give 

 her back her old clothing, which has been washed in the pool and which 

 she will wear again for two days.f 



Here end the ceremonies of the first day. 



(.3) The Five Days followin<; the Death. 



During those days the great mourning takes place. Visitors and 

 relatives come from everywhere to show their sympathy. They bring 

 with them jars of beer and other eatables. The}- get drunk. Some- 

 times the mourning turns into something which is much more like 

 rejoicing. They sing and they dance. These mourning songs are 

 verv strange. They are full of impure, licentious words, and Ihey 

 are performed only by the women with horrible, disgusting movements. 

 The Ba-Ronga possess what they call the hip dance. Having witnessed 

 one of these mourning dances, I could not call it otherwise than the 

 ivomb dance. What might be the obscure reason why bereaved people, 

 who ought to think about things so different, give up themselves pub- 

 licly to dissolute performances which are not even allowed in times of 

 true and healthy rejoicing? Is it on account of the mysterious con- 



* One of the first luouriiiiig acts consists in taking away the straw crown, 

 wliieh the l>a-Ronp,'a ])ut on the toj) of the huts, ami tlirowing it down before 

 the door to close it. The space between this old hut and the new one built for 

 the Hrst wife is sacred : nobody nnist cross it. All the belongings of the 

 deceased are deposited there till the adjudication of the iidieritance. There 

 also the nionrning sacrilices are to take place. 



t Tlie widower also lias to go tlironj;li the same secret rites as the 

 widows, l)nt the incision is performed by only one conuiule, and is not followed 

 by the purification (?) of the liands by the smoke of cock's dun.u-. The three 

 acts which lie must acconiplisli are therefore these: (1) the ingniiial incision; 

 (2) tlie castinj-- away of that most i)rimitive •;arment wliicli the Uonga men call 

 .sliibfitsliii, and wliicli they wear, as do ;dso the Zulu ; (8) tiie crossiiif; of the hut 

 with lond lamentation. After that the Midower will Iiave to j)erform the 

 cleansin<i acts of the following- days. As he has pioliably buried his wife him- 

 self and has touched the corpse, the law of " throwing away the malediction" 

 {lahla khombo) ajiplies also to him. 



