Manchester Memoirs, Vol. lix. (191 5), No. 10. 57 



six months is also found ; but it was the tongue and not 

 the jaw which received special attention (25 and 27)]. 



In Egypt, where the practice of mummification was 

 most successful, special treatment of the head was not 

 necessary, except occasionally in Ptolemaic times (39), 

 when carelessness on the part of the embalmer led to 

 disastrous results and it became necessary to " fake " a 

 body for attachment to the separated head. But as the 

 Baganda were unable to make a mummy which would 

 last, they adopted these special measures with regard to 

 the skull. Originally special importance was attached to 

 the head, primarily {vide supra) as a means of identifying 

 the deceased. But when the practice of preservation 

 spread to uncultured people, whose efforts at embalming 

 were ineffectual, the idea was transferred to the skull, the 

 reason for the special treatment of the head probably 

 being forgotten. Why such peculiar honour should be 

 devoted to the jaw can only be surmised from our know- 

 ledge of the belief that the deceased was supposed to be 

 able to talk and communicate with the living (21). 



In his article in the Journal of the Anthropological 

 Institute (72, p. 44) Roscoe give some further particulars. 

 Four men and four women were clubbed to death at the 

 funeral ceremony of the king. 



The body was wrapped in strips of bark cloth and 

 each finger and toe was wrapped separately. 



In U Anthropologic (T. 21, 1910, p. 53) Poutrin says of 

 the burial customs of the M'Baka people of French Congo 

 " le corps, prcalablement embaume avec des herbes sccher 

 et de la cendre est couche sur 1111 lit." 



Weeks (104, pp. 450 and 451) gives an account of the 

 burial customs of the Bangala of the Upper Congo. 

 " They took out the entrails and buried them, placed the 

 corpse on a frame, lit a fire under it, and thoroughly 



