CHAPTER XXI
FETISH-*—{continued)
In which, the Voyager discourses on the legal methods of natives of this
country, the ideas governing forms of burial, of their manner of
mourning for their dead, and the condition of the African soul in its
under-world.
GREAT as are the incidental miseries and dangers surrounding
death to all the people in the village in which a
death occurs, undoubtedly those who suffer most are the
widows of a chief or free man.
The uniform custom among both Negroes and Bantus is
that those who escape execution on the charge of having
witched the husband to death, shall remain in a state of filth
and abasement, not even removing vermin from themselves,
until after the soul-burial is complete— the soul of the dead
man being regarded as hanging about them and liable to be
injured. Therefore, also to the end of preventing his soul
from getting damaged, they are confined to their huts; this
latter restriction is not rigidly enforced, but it is held theoretically
to be the correct thing.
They maintain the attitude of grief and abasement, sitting
on the ground, eating but little food, and that of a coarse
kind. In Calabar their legal rights over property, such as
slaves, are meanwhile considerably in abeyance, and they are
put to great expense during the time the spirit is awaiting
burial. They have to keep watch, two at a time, in the hut,
when the body is buried, keeping lights burning, and they
have to pay out of their separate estate for the entertainment
of all the friends of the deceased who come to pay him
1 1 2