444 
BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA 
In the case of the A-nyanja the body is usually stretched at full length when 
prepared for burial; amongst the Wa-yao the legs are bent; with the Wankonde 
the body is tiech up in a sitting position, the knees drawn up against the chin 
with the hands clasped round the legs. This appears to be the position adopted 
by almost all the other tribes of British Central Africa. 
Muhammadans are, of course, swathed in cloth and buried at full length. 
Wailing begins as soon as the death is officially announced : it is generally 
commenced by the wives of the deceased (if a male) or by the mother or sister 
of the dead woman. Mourning .consists of plaintive songs, much drumming, 
and mystic dancing. Where the people have been in contact with the coast 
Muhammadans, guns are fired if a great man has died. This firing of guns 
is kept up at intervals until the burial is finished. The Wa-yao and some 
other tribes throw flour over their heads and shoulders when in mourning ; 
the A-nyanja and the people of the west coast of Lake Nyasa tie strips of 
bark cloth, or plaited straw, or blue calico round their arms and waists. 
Amongst the Wa-yao and A-nyanja the corpse, whether swathed or not, is 
usually rolled up in the mat which belonged to his bed, or in cases where the 
mourning on account of a chief or big man is to last a long time the body 
is enclosed in a cylinder of bark. It is then placed over a hole dug in the 
floor of the hut so that the inconvenience caused by decomposition may be 
thus got rid of. The smell attending decomposition is neutralised by hemp 
and other aromatic weeds being burned. It often happens, however, that the 
deceased person who is to be mourned such a long period has his body poised 
over what is to be subsequently his grave; for men are often buried in their 
own houses. 
If, however, the dead person is to be buried away from the village a long 
pole is passed through the mat or cylinder enclosing the body and the corpse 
is then carried along on the shoulders of undertakers who go out accompanied 
by a number of men and women marching with drums and chants. The 
grave is dug, the body buried, the earth heaped over it and fences are erected 
to which there may be subsequently added a grass roof. 
The Rev. Duff Macdonald states that amongst the Yao no one very closely 
related to the deceased accompanies the body to the grave if it can possibly 
be helped—that is to say, if there are enough people in the village not thus 
related to carry out the ceremony. Mothers are allowed to go to the funerals 
of their children if they have died in infancy, not otherwise ; a father will 
not go to the funeral of his children nor the husband to that of his wife. 
Mr. Macdonald also states that the chief relative of the deceased—what we 
should call the first mourner—does not come to the grave, as that would unfit 
him for the task of prosecuting the witch that caused the death. 
The grave is not dug, nor is the site of it actually indicated until the funeral 
party arrives, after which grave-digging commences. The diggers are supported 
from time to time by rations of food brought by the women and the grave 
is dug with hoes and according to the measurement of the body. When the 
grave is finished two forked stakes are driven into the ground at each end of 
it. The body is then lowered and the forked sticks receive the projecting 
parts of the bamboo that carried the corpse to the grave. It is thus suspended 
between these two sticks without touching the bottom of the grave. The top 
of the grave is roofed in by logs of wood. Articles which are to be buried 
with the deceased are then put in and earth is finally sifted over the hole. 
According to Mr. Macdonald this strong wooden fence round the grave 
