DREADFUL CEREMONY AT THE FUNERAL OF AN AFRICAN KING.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 86, 31 July 1876, Page 2

DREADFUL CEREMONY AT THE FUNERAL OF AN AFRICAN KING.

o The "Journal de Paris" contains letter giving tlie following particulars the atrocities committed on the occasii of the funeral of Kamrasi, King of Offl yoro, in Central Africa. An immen grave or pit, capable of holding seven hundred people, had been dug, at tt bottom of which the wives of the def® king had been placed in the form of arin to be in readiness to receive upon thei knees the corpse of their late tyrannici and barbarous master. Several regiment of the royal guard had been sent on tt preceding night to silently surround so® of the neighboring villages. The fa human being, be it man woman or chik that made its exit from the surround huts was forcibly seized and carried oi and captives entrapped in this mans were conducted towards this pit prep® for funeral. Here commenced the ma horrible scene. The limbs of .these p« creatures, arms and legs, were broken 1 the soldiers. The lamentations and cri of despair of the victims, interraingli with the shouting of the fanatical crow and one by one they were thrown into H gaping gulf below. Then commenced ti beating of drums, the flourish of trumpet the piercing sound of the whistle and pip which, together with the violent vociier tions of the crowd, drowned the cries' the victims. The soil dug out of the p the previous day was then thrown b# into the monster grave. The fanatic spectators of the dismal drama, as sooni it was filled up, commenced to dance up 6 the summit of the grave, stamping these down with all their might, so as to forffl) hard compact laj'er above those bun* alive. All the lamentations having ceaseJ nothing was left to indicate the cerenioS; of the abominable sepulture ; the noise 6 the instruments had ceased also, and tW assembled crowd retired, satisfied tfijj themselves, and admiring the greatness« the king whose manes demanded such ss ( rifices.