MSUATA. 179 
to encourage him with vague hopes that all was not in 
vain, but he shook his grizzled head sadly at the confession 
of our powerlessness face to face with death. 3 
_ The body of the dead man had been previously smoked 
and dried over a slow fire, so that the flesh, except upon 
the hands, was shrunken and reduced to a leathery 
covering round the gaunt bones. The face had been 
gaudily painted with scarlet, yellow and white pigments, 
and the whole body was encrusted with the red dye of the 
camwood tree. Round the nose and mouth was wrapped 
a band of cloth, and gay-patterned cottons swathed the 
body. For some reason the hands were quite plump and 
well covered with flesh, as if in life. The dead man had 
heen placed in his grave in a sitting posture, many layers 
of native cloth lying under him, and ready to cover him 
up on the top were piles of cotton stuffs received in trade 
from the far-off coast, and representing to these natives 
a considerable amount of wealth. In the vague, half- 
_ determined notions which the people here have conceived 
as to a future existence, everything in the Spirit World 
is supposed to be a pale copy of things existing on the 
earth, so that for this reason they put cloth, vessels of 
pottery, and, in the case of a chief, dead slaves into the 
oraves, in order that the deceased, on arriving in the land 
of shades, may not appear unprovided with the necessary 
means of making a fresh start in a new life. 
The grave in which this man was buried had been dug 
in a hut, and the head of the corpse was not more than 
two feet below the surface. We could not ascertain 
whether the hut, or rather house—for it was a substantial 
building of poles and thatch—would be abandoned or not. 
I fancy not, as it is only in the case of a chief that this is 
done ; and the man that was dead, although he died rich 
and influential, was, after all, only the favourite slave of 
the chief. . 
In this village many skulls were stuck on the top of the 
houses. They were those of mis-doers, we were told, who 
had been slain by the fetish-man for their crimes, and 
their skulls were thus exposed for the admonition of 
N 2 
