328 
Proceedings of the Royal Soeiety 
grave. Four cows are killed by the friends out of respect for the 
departed, and the eldest son often kills his favourite ox. 
If a great man has died, friends and relations come from a 
distance to the burial, and stay a few weeks (four?) mourning for 
the dead. For the first four nights they sleep on skins by the 
grave, and during the remainder of the time they pay frequent 
visits to it and make lamentations. The deceased’s widow resigns 
all household duties to a sister or friend, and gives herself up to 
weeping during a month. 
At the end of this time a lamb is killed ; it is subsequently eaten 
by the friends, as were the cows killed on the day of burial. 
The son leads the lamb to the grave, but it is killed by a man of 
a semi-priestly order (whose office it is to perform such like duties 
on various occasions). This man, after killing the animal, sprinkles 
its blood on the people and the grave. After speaking at length on 
the virtues of the deceased, he sprinkles the people with water, 
exhorts them to put away their sorrow, and to show kindness 
towards each other. The friends then take their leave, but a year 
after the man’s death all his relations and friends who live near meet 
again and celebrate the day by a feast and dance; and on these 
occasions the dance is never followed by a fight. 
If a woman die her friends mourn her loss also for a month, but 
for children the time of mourning is only a few days. 
If a man should be killed at a fight or hunt, and the place and 
manner of his death be unknown, his friends go and search for his 
body, and if they cannot identify it, they bury any bones they may 
find about the place of supposed death. 
As soon as the period of mourning for a father is over, the 
children (if young) are taken to their father’s family, and a consulta- 
tion is held as to what is the best thing to be done with them. 
They are usually placed inside the circle of consulting relations, 
and if old enough are asked whether they will stay and live with 
their father’s people, or go with their mother. The mother is urged 
to remain in the village, but she usually prefers to go to her own 
relations, and as a rule the children go with her. Sometimes the 
eldest son, if he is old enough, will remain on his late father’s 
property and look after it, the mother with the rest of the children 
going, for a time at least, to live with one of her brothers. Later 
