BANTU NEGROES 749 



beaten down. The exposed head is then covered with a large earthenware 

 pot, and a watch is kept over the head by the elder relations, who from time 

 to time remove the pot and ascertain whether the flesh has disappeared. 

 When the skull has been completely cleaned by ants (who are useful 

 scavengers in this respect), it is carefully removed from the rest of the 

 skeleton and is buried close to the hut. Later on the bones of the body 

 are all dug up (having been thoroughly cleansed of flesh by insects), and 

 are reburied with great ceremony at one or other of the sacred burial 

 places (usually groves on the tops of hills where a few fine trees remain 

 as vestiges of a once universal forest). The body of a chief is wrapped in 

 the hide of an ox which has been killed for his funeral feast. When an 

 ordinary man dies, his sons and brothers or his wives dig the grave in the 

 middle of his hut, and the corpse is buried lying on its right side with 

 the legs doubled up. The hut is not used afterwards. Women are buried 

 in the same way. A child is buried near the door of its mother's hut. 

 After the death of a married woman her relations attend as soon as 

 possible, and expect when they arrive a small present from the widower. 

 The main object of their visit is to ivail for the deceased. This is done 

 after the death of any one excepting a young child for two days imme- 

 diately following the decease. Then, again, the women wail every evening 

 after the first two days for three days more, and this cry of sorrow (which 

 is a doleful howl) continues at intervals for some weeks afterwards. If. a 

 chief of importance dies, his death will be mourned by wailing in the 

 morning and the evening for a whole year. A sign of mourning on 

 the part of these people is a cord of banana fibre worn round the neck 

 and waist. 



Before a chief dies he chooses one of his sons to succeed him, in some 

 cases giving the son (or, if he be a child, his mother) a brass bracelet as 

 a sign of his succession to the chieftainship. When an ordinary man 

 dies, his property is equally divided amongst his children. The mother 

 of a grown-up son goes to live with her son when she becomes a widow ; 

 but if one of the wives of the deceased has only small children, she is 

 taken to wife by her eldest stepson, who also adopts the children. An 

 elderly widow who has no grown-up son goes to live with her brother-in- 

 law, the brother of her deceased husband. A man, however, is forbidden 

 to take to wife his mother's sister, his aunt, whom, however, he will 

 endeavour to support. This aunt will, if possible, live with the young 

 man's mother, and be treated by him as analogous to his mother. 



Foaker considers the Bantu Kavirondo t3 be distinctly on the increase. 

 He points out that this increase was checked from time to time by 

 famines, which were the result of periodical droughts or raids into tin 1 

 country by the Nandi and other aggressive tribes. With peace, and witli 



