340 ETHNOLOGY 



the astonishing constitutions with which they have 

 been endowed. Nothing, for example, is more 

 usual than for a woman to walk about the day after 

 the birth of her child as if nothing very ex- 

 traordinary had happened to her. I remember in 

 Nyasaland, some years ago, the case of a female 

 who was on the road from Blantyre to Zomba (a 

 distance of rather over forty miles), when she was 

 confined on the roadside at a place called Chirad- 

 zulu, a little less than half the distance. After the 

 birth of her child she rested during the remainder 

 of that day, slept in a shelter her husband arranged 

 for her, and the following morning completed the 

 distance, arriving at Zomba in very good condition 

 indeed. 



The ceremonies observed at death vary consider- 

 ably. In no two districts, so far as I can learn, are 

 they identical ; but selecting the more important 

 observances which more or less coincide throughout, 

 the rite is somewhat as follows. The death is 

 announced to the village by loud cries and waihng, 

 which continue incessantly for a day and a night, 

 and serve to attract many relatives and other per- 

 sons to the house of mourning. In the extensive 

 Sena district, after the first outward manifes- 

 tations of grief, preparations are at once made 

 for the interment. Two intimate elderly male 

 friends of the deceased, if it be a man, are re- 

 quested to undertake the duties of laying out 

 the corpse. These are called the Nyarumb^s. 

 Assisted by the Kambaiassa, or doctor (so called 

 only for this purpose), they wash the body with 

 hot water, shave its head, and wrap it in white 



