Chap. XXXVII. FUNERAL DANCE.— ORDEAL. 
535 
seems to show that they belong rather to the family 
of South African tribes, than to the group of neigh- 
bouring tribes of Central Negroland. 
We had plenty of good fare in the evening, the 
Bornu titular mayor of the place sending me a sheep, 
besides corn for the horses, and our hosts preparing a 
fowl for myself, and several dishes of hasty-pudding, 
with fish-sauce, for my people. The evening being 
clear, and illuminated by splendid moonlight, I sat a 
long time outside — perhaps too long, in my precarious 
state of health — enjoying the sound of music and 
dancing which came from the opposite quarter of the 
village ; but I was not a little astonished when I 
heard from my young friend, whom I asked why he 
did not go to join in the merriment, that it was not 
an ordinary amusement, but a religious dance to cele- 
brate the death of an old man : for if a person in old 
age dies, his death is deemed a cause of satisfaction 
and mirth, while that of a young one is lamented with 
tears. 
I have already noticed some peculiar customs of 
the Margin ; but I must say a few w r ords about their 
curious ordeal on the holy granite rock of Kobshi. 
When two are litigating about a matter, each of them 
takes a cock which he thinks the best for fighting ; 
and they go together to Kobshi. Having arrived at 
the holy rock, they set their birds a-fighting, and 
he whose cock prevails in the combat is also the 
winner in the point of litigation. But more than 
that, the master of the defeated cock is punished by 
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