A Funeral Orgy
Satu becomes chief--Preparations for the funeral feast--My box is
opened--I become a neck ornament--Bakula, my new owner, is smart,
but superstitious--The mourners assemble and present their
gifts--The toilet before eating--Drunkenness and quarrelling--Corpse
is carried to the grave--A white man wants to steal the ivory
trumpets--He is shaved and sent about his business.
As the deceased chief was a very great man it was necessary to postpone
his burial for a month or two until fitting arrangements for a grand
funeral could be conveniently made, otherwise his spirit would not be
satisfied, and trouble would follow.[10] Moreover, if the chief had been
hurriedly buried like an ordinary man, the whole countryside would have
accused the family of meanness and selfishness in wanting to keep the
dead man’s wealth for themselves. Therefore the body was dried, wrapped
in a cloth and placed in a hut built for the purpose.
Footnote 10:
See note 8, p. 345.
Satu sent to all the markets day after day for miles round, buying up
every goat, sheep and pig that was offered for sale. Having collected a
large number of animals he then began to send out invitations to the
funeral ceremonies. It was decided that on the eighth _nkandu_[11]
market day the rites should begin. All messengers sent to chiefs with an
invitation had to take with them one or two goats, according to the
chief’s importance, “to feed them and their followers on the journey” to
the mourning town.
Footnote 11:
See note 9, p. 345.
At the commencement of these preparations my box, in which I had
travelled so far, was opened, and I should have been sent with many
other brass rods to the markets in exchange for goats or pigs; but a lad
took a fancy to me, and begged to give an old brass rod in my place. My
new master, whose name was Bakula, turned over my two ends, and, hooking
them together, he wore me round his neck as an ornament, and as he
polished me brightly every day I was well able to see all that happened
about me.
My new owner was a free-born lad of high spirits, alertness and agility,
quick at all games, successful in all kinds of sports; but like many of
his seniors, held the women and girls in great contempt except when he
wanted a favour, and then he could cajole and flatter them until their
eyes sparkled with pleasure and they became his slaves. He was, however,
very superstitious, had many charms tied about his person, and regarded
the “medicine men” with great awe and admiration. Bakula quite believed
that his success in hunting, his smartness at games, and his general
good fortune were entirely due to his charms and the regularity with
which he made sacrifices to them.
The appointed day for the funeral was drawing nigh, so the preparations
were pushed on apace. Large quantities of cassava flour[12] were
prepared and an immense number of _kwanga_[13] loaves were bought at the
different markets, and demijohns and calabashes of palm-wine were
ordered for the three days’ feasting that were to precede the interment.
Footnote 12:
See note 10, p. 345.
Footnote 13:
See note 11, p. 345.
The eventful day at last dawned, and during the morning and early
afternoon chiefs with retinues of wives, followers and slaves were
constantly arriving. They came from all quarters and entered the town by
all the roads leading to it. Bakula seemed to be ubiquitous, for he
greeted most of the chiefs as they entered the town, and led them to
where Satu was sitting in state to receive his guests. Those of humble
origin knelt before Satu and paid homage to him; those of exalted
position received homage from him; and those who were his equals sat
down on a mat, and solemnly, they and Satu, clapped their hands at each
other.
Every chief, head man, and invited guest brought a gift of cloth “to
wind round the corpse,” and as soon as the salutations were over the
cloth was presented, piece by piece, to Satu. The present was supposed
to be in proportion to the giver’s social position. A chief who on
account of his importance had received two goats with his invitation
would be expected to give three times the value of the goats in cloth,
and if he fell short of this he was considered mean; but if he went
beyond it he was regarded as a generous, wealthy man, and his name would
be in the mouths of all the mourners, and he could strut about puffed
out with pride.
This cloth, though given ostensibly “to wind round the dead chief,” was
really used to defray the expenses of the feast; and happy was the
family which had no crushing debt left at the close of such festivities.
Satu carefully noted the value of every gift, and although he could not
write, yet at the close of the day he could have told from his
well-trained memory the number and quality of every piece of cloth given
by any chief.
Nearly three hundred people had gathered to the funeral, either by
direct invitation, or in attendance on their husbands, their chiefs, or
their masters. It was just at the beginning of the dry season,
consequently all the cooking and eating was done in the open streets;
and those who could not find a house in which to sleep considered it no
hardship to spread their mats and sleep in front of the houses.
Soon after sunset the ordinary folk gathered round the fires watching
the women cooking, while the chiefs and head men sat in groups gravely
talking local politics or loudly boasting of their prowess in bygone
hunts and fights. No cloths were laid for the feast, and no tables were
set and decorated. Everything was in primitive style. Their fingers were
all the cutlery they possessed, and their loin-cloths were substitutes
for serviettes.
Just before the food was served boys and girls went round with
calabashes of water, and each guest took a large mouthful, with which he
washed his hands, mouth and teeth in the following manner: Having taken
a large mouthful of water, the operator ejected some of it from his
mouth in a gentle stream on to his hands, which he washed quickly and
vigorously. With the remainder of the water he cleaned his teeth by
putting the index finger of his right and left hand alternately into his
mouth and rubbing them; then, throwing the residue of the water about in
his mouth to rinse it, he spat it out. Lastly, drying his hands on his
loin-cloth or on a bark cloth, he completed his toilet preparations for
dinner.
It was an amusing sight to see scores of men sitting on their haunches
and gravely squirting water on their hands. The puffed cheeks, filled
with water; the intent looks, and the care shown to aim the jets of
water straight so as not to waste any, made a humorous picture on my
mind. How simple and how effectual was the operation! I found that this
habit of washing hands, teeth and mouth not only preceded each principal
meal, but was also repeated after the meal, and largely accounts for the
beautiful, healthy teeth possessed by the natives.
By now the food was cooked, and the women were turning it out into every
kind of receptacle they could find--wooden dishes, tin plates, baskets,
saucepans and washhand basins were all requisitioned. The guests broke
up into groups of from six to ten persons; and each group received a
large vessel of smoking vegetables, and another of steaming meat and
gravy.
At once the fingers were dipped in, and he who could bolt his food the
quickest got the largest share of what was going.[14] Vessel after
vessel was emptied, and stomachs visibly distended in the process; but
at last operations became slower and died away in grunts of
satisfaction.
Footnote 14:
See note 12, p. 346.
I noticed that the men and boys ate by themselves, and the women and
girls by themselves. In fact, it was considered beneath his dignity for
a man to eat with a woman; and boys of ten would receive their portion
from their mothers and go and eat it with the men. As a rule the women
had what was left by the men, or what they could successfully hide from
them. During meals little or nothing was said, as each diner thought
eating was more important than talking.
At the close of the feast the old men sat in groups talking and drinking
palm-wine. Now and again voices were raised in angry quarrels; for as
wine entered, prudence retreated; grievances and jealousies were
remembered, revived and wrangled over again, and some of them had to be
forcibly restrained from fighting.
The younger men and women, hearing the drums resounding with their
rhythmical beating, went off to dance in the moonlight, and the drinking
and dancing continued far into the night; pandemonium reigned, law and
order were forgotten, and the stars looked down that night on a town
that had changed into a pig-sty.
These orgies lasted three nights. Through the day the men lounged about,
sleeping in the shade; the women did no work, but simply gathered
firewood and water for cooking the evening feasts. During the day no
regular meals were taken, but the folk ate bananas, or roasted plantain,
or a few peanuts, or stayed their hunger on sugar-canes--all, by
fasting, were preparing for the night’s feasting.
On the evening of the fourth day, just at sunset, the corpse was carried
to the grave for burial. The bearers took it first round the town, and
pretended that the corpse was reluctant to leave the town so they had to
struggle with it to the burial place, and there they buried it with its
feet to the setting sun, and its head towards the east.
As the corpse was carried by the houses of the principal men they came
out to greet it, and fire their guns in a parting salute to their late
chief; and after that farewell from the town the funeral guns were
loaded and fired in quick succession to inform the spirits in the great,
mysterious forest town that an important man was coming.
The Lower Congo natives always buried at sunset for this reason: During
the daytime their own towns are deserted, because the women and girls go
to the farms and do not return until the afternoon; and the men and boys
go to hunt or fish, or work in the forest, or trade on the markets, and
do not return until the evening. Hence the old, the sick and the
children only are left in the town; consequently any one arriving during
that time would find few, if any, to greet them; but if the traveller
reaches a town between five and six o’clock the folk will have returned
from their various occupations, and at every step he will be greeted by
the people. They think that the great forest town of spirits is
conducted in the same way, and to ensure a welcome to the deceased they
bury him just before sunset with much firing of guns, blowing of ivory
trumpets, and beating of their drums.
Just as the burial rites were completed a white man, a State officer,
arrived. He was greeted, and a house was cleared out, swept and given to
him for the night. The white man walked freely about the town that
evening and enjoyed the hospitality of the people. He watched the
dances, listened to the native band composed of ivory trumpets and
various drums, and was free to go and come as he pleased. In the morning
he repaid their hospitality by demanding the ivory trumpets from them.
This unreasonable request the natives refused to obey; a fracas ensued
followed by a scuffle, during which the officer was securely tied.
One party of the natives wanted to kill him and pour his blood on the
grave of their buried chief; but another, and stronger, party resisted
this extremity, wishing only to punish him for trying to enforce an
unjust demand. Finally it was decided to shave the man’s head, beard,
moustache and eyebrows and send him off.
When the officer’s head and face had been reduced to the smoothness of a
billiard ball--native shaving is not a gentle process--he was allowed to
proceed on his way a sadder, and, perhaps, a wiser man. I heard that
ever after that encounter with the natives he heartily and thoroughly
abused them to his compatriots, but he carefully left out of the account
his attempt to steal their ivory trumpets.
The Congos have a proverb that runs thus: In a court of fowls the
cockroach never wins his case; _i. e._ the verdict of one race against
another is to be received with caution.