An African Funeral.

Te Aroha News, Volume I, Issue 28, 15 December 1883, Page 5

An African Funeral.

On the evening of the first day's journey we stopped at a village called Itiinba, near the point where the Congo begins to < narrow down from a breadth of nine .or ten* miles to. a few hundred yards: Here, at Itimba, we •found the people just about to proceed to the obsequies of a dead fellow-townsman, an old man, apparently of some social standing. The chief and his. subjects were in. some perplexity. Of late years it has become cle rigiienv\ since guns were introduced into the Upper Congo- regions, to fire a salute over the body of a defunct person, if he be of any distinction ;* and the inhabitants of this (village • .possessing only one pitiful old flintlock amongst them* - and that terribly out of /repair,, were hesitating when we arrived as <to what course ,they should pursue — whether they should charge ..and fire .. this •• one dilapidatedgun and risk its bursting, or whether the deceased should be allowed' to wend .his way to the ■ land.!. of . spirits, unhonoured and unsaluted. Seeing their perplexity, Lieutenant ,Orban volunteered to fire off a round of twenty cartridges from his "-Winchester.'! The chief and people were delighted. Could there; be greater honour for' the deceased than to .receive .his farewell salute at the hands of a white man,: with his wonderful gun, from Mputon-the mysterious region' beyond the>sea—the.Unj, known — perhaps heaven itself ? (far-are not these white <men sons of' heaven?) uSff thought the bid chief, a» he led usitoi see the corpse. With an earnest, pleading tone, he took our hands in his, and said, " Oh you, who are ■ going home !" — and he pointed to the pale and peaceful evening sky — " You will send him back to us, will you not? You tell him his. hut is .waiting for him, his wives will prepare his >mamop white as cotton cloth, , and there shall bo , Malatu, in .plenty, and a ; goat killed. You , will send him. back, will you pot?" , T, his, , .expression of feeling quite took us, by surprise.-., Ordinarily ; the African chief is so , stolid, so thoroughly^material, that one .expects from him anything, like sentiment; or .poetical ideas. We tried as gently as possible— for he appealed to both of us in his distress j —tp explain; at,bn,ce pur ut£er inability, to reanimate tthis hidqous corpse with the breath lof.li/e, and' to encourage him with vague hopes, that all;was not in, vain ; bui; he shook hjs aged .grilled head , sadly at the confession cJLpnrppwerlesgn'ess face to face with death., , Tjie body, of thedjes4,,man had been previously.' smoked xJ l 'i e dt,Qver t a glow fire, so that, the, #esh, ,oxcept upon #>c hands, was , shr,upken and. rpduced to, t ,a Jeatheiy cpveringroundthegaunt bones. The 1 face, had been, gaudily painted with sca.rl,et, ye,llow, and white .pigments, and the,iwl)o]e body, was encrusted with the red dye, of the camwood tree. Round the nose and mouth was wrapped a band, of cloth, and gay-patterned cottons swathed $he body. t For some reason the hands were quite plump .well covered with ilesh,; as if in li(e. ? ,Th.Qdead man had; been placed ,in his,; grave,, in ,aj sitting posture, many layers of najiivp.clQtih; lying under lumj.and ready tp' cover him,up| on the top , wpre piles, of cotton. stuffs v re-'| ceived in trade f rqm the far-off coajst^ and representing to these natives ,a, considerable' amount of wea,lsh. : In the vague, ho,lf ;desei:-: mined nptipns, which the people here hftye conceive^, as 'tQ . a future .exisjtenc,©, } §yery-' thing in ,the Spirit World is^suppo^Cji to be, a pa,le .copy of things existing ,'on, the eartji,! so that for this reason they put^cloth,,, vessels of ,, pottery,, and,, in., the case of a; chief, cfead slaves theirgravesj' in'prder t^iat the deceased 'on jamving" 'in, th'e.tan'd of Shades may no£ appear unprcjvicle'd with' t^e necessary means of making affesft start; in a hew life. — (Special ' Correspondent of the "Daily Tel9graph.;X , „ • „;;;*' "•