84 
BLIND MUSICIANS. 
the village ; lie was welcomed everywhere, as a smile 
for ever played upon his lips. By moonlight he would 
stand singing for two hours at a time with a crowd of 
a hundred people, men and women, the sultan amidst 
them, all round him, joining in a chorus of almost 
devotional music. He had the power, by placing his 
hand to his mouth, of sending the deep, pleasing tones 
of his voice away to a distance, which gave delight to 
every one, the women in particular showing approval 
by a shrill peculiar falsetto noise, which they make 
by tapping the cheek or shaking the lower lip with 
the forefinger and thumb. Another blind man, deeply 
marked with smallpox, gathered the village boys around 
him and taught the songs of their country, while he 
beat time with his foot. They have several fine na- 
tional airs. 
Their funeral ceremonies are simple enough. Chiefs, 
and most of the respectable classes, are buried under 
the floors of their dwellings, or more commonly in 
cattle-sheds ; while witches and slaves are thrown into 
the jungle without interment. I observed one of the 
latter lying, tied with his face to a pole, in long grass, 
with some rags round the waist; the limbs were 
trussed up much in the same way as an infant lies 
asleep. 
Though residing in the verandah of the chief house 
of the M'teme or sultan, or in the most central part of 
the village, I rarely saw any men at their meals, unless 
when assembled round pombe. They seemed to take 
pot-luck at any hour of the day, and at any house 
where the signs of eating were going on — getting a 
boiled sweet potato here, a drink of pombe there, or a 
snack of beef as a rarity. Women were more regular 
