File:The uncivilized races of men in all countries of the world - being a comprehensive account of their manners and customs, and of their physical, social, mental, moral and religious characteristics (14750289156).jpg

Identifier: uncivilizedraces00wood (find matches)
Title: The uncivilized races of men in all countries of the world : being a comprehensive account of their manners and customs, and of their physical, social, mental, moral and religious characteristics
Year: 1878 (1870s)
Authors: Wood, J. G. (John George), 1827-1889
Subjects: Ethnology Manners and customs Savages
Publisher: Hartford : J. B. Burr and company
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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isfaction, they bring fragments of an ant-hill, which, as the reader may remember, isthe best and finest clay that can be procured,and lay it carefully about the feet of thecorpse, over which it is pressed by two menwho stand in the grave for that purpose.More and more clay is handed down inwooden bowls, and stamped firmly down,the operators raising the mat in proportionas the earth rises. They take particularcare that not even the smallest pebble shallmix with the earth that surrounds the body,and, as the clay is quite free from stones, itis the fittest material for their purpose. As soon as the earth reaches the mouth, abranch of acacia is placed in the grave, andsome roots of gra,ss laid on the head, so thatpart of the grass projects above the level ofthe ground. The excavated soil is thenscooped up so as to make a small mound,over which is poured several bowlfuls ofwater, the spectators meanwhile shoutingout, Pula! Pula! as they do when ap-plauding a speaker in the paidiament. The
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(302) rUNEKAL RITES. 303 weapons and implements of the deceasedare then hrought to the grave, and presentedto him, but they are not left theie, as is thecase with some tribes. The ceremony endsby the whole party leaving the ground, amidthe lamentations of the women, who keeplip a continual wailing crying. These are the full ceremonials that takepl.ice at the death of a chief, —at all events,of a man of some importance, but they varymuch according to the rank of the individual.Sometimes a rain-maker has forbidden allsepulchral rites whatever, as interfering withthe )5roduction of rain, and during the timeof this interdict every corpse is dragged intothe bush to be consumed by the hyasnas.Even the very touch of a dead body is for-bidden, and, under this strange tyranny, ason has been seen to fling a leathern roperound the leg of his dead mother, drag herbody into the bush, and there leave it, throw- ing down the rope and abandoning it, be-cause it had been defiled by the contact of ad

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