FETICHISM OF THE BANTU NEGROES. 



769 



was to catch men. I did not press him with any more questions, for I 

 knew he wonld answer me with the first lie he could think of. 



Numerous grave-marks are characteristic of all the roads and paths 

 of Angola ; they are, according to the degree of civilization and the 



Fis. 4. 



social importance of the deceased, either large earthern catafalques 

 with towers at the comers, such as are erected by the Africo-Portu- 

 guese, simple long mounds of the form everywhere used, or a little 

 stone-heap. Graves of the first two classes are generally sheltered by 

 a hut or roof. Graves of the last kind, which are very often the 

 graves of porters that have died on the road, are frequently found 

 fresh and adorned with the staff, the belt, the provision-bag, the water- 

 gourd, or the cooking-pot of the dead man. The best finished cata- 

 falques of earth are whitewashed and painted with pretty colored 

 arabesques and flowers. Vessels in which food has been brought to 

 the deceased at various times may be found scattered around the 

 grave, together with burned clay figures of the most curious character. 

 Sometimes the graves contain nothing but the hair and nails of the 

 persons to whom they are erected ; for the man may have died on a 

 journey, and have been buried among strangers. But, in order that a 

 place may be provided near his home where his spirit may linger, and 

 enjoy the food and drink that are regularly brought to it, one of his 

 friends will cut off some of his hair and nails, and present them to the 

 family to be formally buried as a symbol of the whole body, which it 

 is not convenient to remove. The little relics are then mourned over 

 and buried just as if they were the body itself, which is, however, 

 moldering far away. Such a monument was the pile of wood which 

 I found near Malansh, a copy of my drawing of which is given in Fig. 

 5. It may, however, be a hunter's medicine, for that was one among 

 the explanations that were given me of its purpose. Four rough- 

 hewed tree-trunks served as posts to hold up the structure of logs and 

 limbs and straw. In front of the structure was a carved idol, on both 

 VOL. XXV. — 49 



