Dr. and Mrs. Berry went to Kragujevatz in the morning for a
conference. We went into the town, did some shopping and had some
raspberry drink and cakes at a cafe; we had a glorious walk back. This
afternoon we heard that there was a funeral; then we heard a lot of
wailing in the distance, so we put on our things and went to the
cemetery. We met the procession of about twenty women with a lot of
banners and baskets of food. It seems that the corpse they were
mourning for had been dead some time, forty days, so it was just an
anniversary. When we arrived at the cemetery the women put the flags
against a tree, then knelt down round the grave and began to wail and
cry bitterly. Then they lighted candles and put them on the grave.
They unpacked the baskets and put plates of food all over the
grave--bread, rice, cucumber cut in slices, cherries, little bowls of
jam, onions, little glasses of wine and decanters of water. We watched
this ceremony for about half an hour. Some of the mourners ate the
food and kept kissing the grave. There were no end of mourners at
other graves doing the same thing. It was the most pathetic sight I
have ever seen, so sad to see the poor things.