1884.] 
From the Zambesi to Benguella. 
117 
to put the corpse on the shoulders of six drunken men, and 
say that the jerking and stumbling are caused by the inanimate 
body, is so thoroughly ridiculous that one cannot imagine how it 
ever entered the minds of men to judge and condemn their 
fellow-creatures by such a process as this. Compared with it the 
Barotse boiling-water ordeal is reasonable. 
After all these knotty points are settled the poor man gets 
a decent burial, but chiefs and great men do not get to rest so 
soon. Their bodies have been kept above ground two years 
after death. When a chief dies they at first say that he is 
sick or asleep, and all the business of the state is conducted by a 
man who sits in a hut beside the dead body. 
A DEAD chief's SPIRIT DISSATISFIED. 
The following is a graphic description given by Mr. Sanders of 
a ceremony witnessed by him in connection with the exhuming 
and reburial of the bones of a chief: 
" On Saturday, May 9th, I went up to the oinbala (king's residence), 
where they were engaged in the funeral rites of Bonge, who was chief 
several years ago. Since his time Sacisende, Vasovava, Ekongo, and 
Ekwikwi have ' mounted the stool.' Sacisende rebelled against Bonge, 
and when the latter saw that he had lost his power, he fled, ' instead 
of killing himself like a man.' Hence he was not buried in the 
akokoto^ or place of sepulchre of the kings. These people think that 
their recent failure to get plunder was due to the wrath of this dead 
Bonge about his burial ; so they brought the box with his bones and 
put him with the other rulers. As it was evidently improper that two 
kings should be in the royal quarters at once, Ekwikwi moved to one 
corner of the ombala, where he was to remain till the next day. 
" The rites were similar to those practised on a smaller scale at 
most of their funerals. The box was hung on a pole carried by two 
men, and, as the assembled people danced and sang, the carriers 
were supposed to go wherever the spirit of Bonge moved them. I 
told Chitwi, who was with me, that it was nonsense to think it was 
the spirit that moved the pole. But he declared that it was the spirit, 
and said that when they have another funeral at Chilume they will 
let me take one end of the pole, and then I shall be convinced and 
agree with them. I said that as soon as there shall be another 
missionary to take the other end of the pole, I shall be very glad to 
try the experiment. 
" After a good deal of singing and dancing, Bonge^ran the end of 
the pole into a fence that was in his way to the graveyard of the 
