DEATH 341 



calico ready for burial. During the discharge of 

 these duties the wailing and mourning are incessant, 

 the mourners sitting on their heels in a circle, and 

 crooning a dirge-like improvised chant in which 

 they express their esteem for the deceased and his 

 many virtues, recounting prominent incidents in 

 his life-time, the voices at the end of each recital 

 uniting in some general expression of grief A 

 grave is now opened in the neighbourhood, usually 

 close to the path ; and when all is ready, the body, 

 secured by bands of cloth to a pole carried on the 

 shoulders of the elderly male members of the com- 

 munity, is brought to the grave and reverently laid 

 to rest. The position of the dead is almost in- 

 variably a recumbent one, but whilst in some dis- 

 tricts they are laid on the back, in others they 

 repose on the right side. During the interment 

 none of the boys or young men are allowed to be 

 present — indeed in some districts they are not 

 permitted to look upon the corpse at all, during the 

 funeral cortege men being sent in advance to warn 

 all persons to leave the path and remain out of 

 sight until the party has passed by. This custom, 

 however, is not general. 



As soon as the grave is filled in, the whole of the 

 dead man's moveable property is broken and placed 

 upon it ; but I have not seen in Zambezia either 

 the pots containing food and water placed at the 

 graveside by the Yaos, nor yet the slab of neatly 

 smoothed mud and the thatched roof which the 

 latter place over it. 



On the return from the burial, one of the Nya- 

 rumbds proceeds to kiU a fowl, into the blood of 



