NILOTIC NEGROES 



793 



liut until the child bei,diis to cut 

 its teeth. The mother does not go 

 out to cultivate for nine days after 

 the Inrth. If a woman has had 

 two children previously who have 

 died, she follows the same ceremony 

 as that described among the Bantu 

 Kavirondo. When the cliild has been 

 brought back by an old w<jman, it 

 is redeemed by the father, wlio then 

 bores the lobe of the right ear and 

 inserts an ear-ring of brass wire. 

 The child is thenceforth called "Owiti," 

 if a boy ; if a girl. '• Awiti," mean- 

 ing " the child that has been thrown 

 awav." The old woman who picks up 

 the child is regarded as its foster- 

 mother. Twins are considered lucky, 

 though their arrival is attended by 

 A good many ceremonies and by pro- 

 pitiatoiy dances which are of an 

 •obscene nature. 



When a person dies, the cor[)se is 

 immediately taken out of the house. 

 If it be a woman, her brothers-in-law 

 ■dig the grave in the verandah of the 

 house. The corpse is buried on its 

 left side with the hand under the 

 head. In the case of a woman's deatli. 

 her relatives and friends come and 

 wail. Her husband presents each 

 •clan that attends with a goat. The 



mourners stay for three days. The hut in which a person has died is used 

 for a month. The neighbours then meet tooether and drink beer, and 

 the house is broken down. Upon the death of a man his brother digs 

 his grave, and he is buried in the house of his tirst wife, if she is still 

 living. ,If she is dead, he is buried in the verandah of his own house. 

 Men only wail for one day. After that only the women wail, at first 

 for three days, and then at dawn for fifteen days. 



As a sign of mournin;/ the women wear a string of banana fibre round 

 the forehead. Tliey also wear a black tail fringed with white strings for 

 <about a month. Others smear themselves with wliite earth. Eelatives of 



"M>^. 



437- 



mkiucim: man fho.m nyakach, sovni 



SlllK OF KAVUIONDO BAY 



