

A ROYAL FUNERAL, j, , 91 



father, and cohabits with them, his own mother excepted, who, 

 however, does not enjoy the consideration she would receive in 

 Uganda. When one of Kabrega's wives is pregnant, a matongali 

 is summoned, in whose charge she is placed, and a district is 

 set apart for her support. She remains there until she is 

 delivered, and does not return until the child is three or four 

 vears old. Girls remain with the mother in the kind's zeriha, 

 and " when grown up, may be married to their own father." 

 Boys, after they have stayed some years on the king's premises, 

 are created matongalis, and receive a district, in which they 

 reside with their mother and tutor. Should the monarch die, 

 all the tutors of the princes at once assemble and determine 

 which of the sons of the deceased king is the best and fittest 

 to be his successor. Xaturally, the decision is seldom unani- 

 mous, but parties are formed and war breaks out, and continues 

 until one of the princes overcomes his rivals, and gains pos- 

 session of the throne, standing in the mortuary- hut of his 

 father, whereupon his authority is recognised. Then his 

 brothers and nearest relations, with few exceptions, are killed, 

 for so custom demands (in Uganda they are burned). 



The corpse of the deceased ruler is washed immediately 

 after death, anointed again and again with fresh butter, and, 

 wrapped in light bark cloths, is placed on a high platform in 

 a hut and zeriha erected on purpose. Under the platform a 

 fire burns day and night — the favourite wives and servants 

 of the deceased are present all the time — until the body is 

 thoroughly dried and smoked ; then the favourite steer of the 

 deceased is killed, its hide dressed, and the corpse wrapped 

 in it and in a quantity of bark cloth and other hides. The 

 corpse remains in the house with the wives and servants until 

 the war between the claimants to the throne is ended. This 

 often lasts for years, and the new king's first duty is the burial 

 of his father with the ceremonies, occasionally slightly varied, 

 which Baker has described. In Unyoro, moreover, it is 

 customary for the king, as soon as he falls seriously ill, or 

 begins -to break up from age, to be killed by his own wives, 

 for, according to an old prophecy, the throne will pass away 

 from the dynasty of the Wawitu in the event of a king dying 

 a natural death. 



