Robert W. Williamson - The Mafulu

R >> Robert W. Williamson >> The Mafulu

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23

Wounds are the speciality of many healers with special knowledge of
the curative properties of various plants, and who gather the plant,
make an incantation over it, boil it in water, and then with that
water wash the wound. There are also men who operate surgically on
wounds with knives made of stone or shell or bamboo.

Charms, probably of a poisonous nature, are used generally for the
warding off of sickness, these being carried in the little charm bags.

A general and universal cure for all ailments is a piece of bark,
tied with a piece of string to the neck or head, all neck ornaments
having been first removed.

I regret that as regards all these matters I am only able to indicate
shortly and generally the methods of cure, and can give no further
explanation concerning them.

Death and Burial.

_(Ordinary People.)_

When a man or woman is regarded as dying, he or she is at once attended
by a woman whose permanent office it is to do this, and who has other
women and girls with her to assist her, these others including, but
not necessarily being confined to, the females of the dying man's own
family and relatives. The house is full of women; but there is no
man there. This special woman and the others attend the dying man,
[97] nursing him, washing him from time to time, and keeping the
flies away from him; but they apparently do not attempt any measures
for curing him, their offices only beginning when he is regarded as
dying. In the meantime they all wail, and there are also a number of
other women wailing outside the house.

The special woman watches the dying person; and when she thinks he
is dead she gives him a heavy blow on the side of the head with her
fist, and pronounces him dead. She apparently does not feel his heart,
or do more than watch his face; and I should think it may often be
that in point of fact he is not dead when the blow is given, and
might perhaps have recovered.

Then the women inside the house say to one another that he is dead,
and communicate the news to the people outside; whereupon the men in
the village all commence shouting as loudly as they can. The reason
given for this shouting is that it frightens away the man's ghost;
but if so it is apparently only a partial intimidation of the ghost,
who, as will be seen hereafter, is subjected to further alarms at a
later stage. The men communicate the news in the ordinary way adopted
by these people of shouting it across the valleys; and so it spreads
to other villages, and even to other communities. The man being dead,
the wailing of the women inside and outside the house is changed into
a true funeral wailing song; but this latter only continues for a few
minutes. The special woman and some others, probably relatives only,
remain in the house; but they do not touch the body at this stage. The
other women, probably non-relatives, go out. The relatives of the
deceased, both men and women, immediately smear their bodies with mud,
but no one else in the village does so.

This is the situation until the first party of women, generally
accompanied by men, begin to come in from other villages of the
same, and probably of one or more other, communities. These people
have been laughing and playing and enjoying themselves on their way
to the village, and do so freely until they get close to it. Then
they commence wailing (not the funeral song) and shouting, calling
the deceased by a relationship term, such as father, brother, etc.,
though they may never have heard of him before; and, doing this, they
enter the village, and go to the house. The incoming women, but not
the men, all arrive smeared with mud. The women crowd into and about
the house, still wailing as before, but not the funeral song. They
all see the body; and each woman, after seeing it, comes out and sits
on the platform of the house or on the ground outside. The party of
outside village women then cease their first wailing, and commence
the funeral song, in which they are joined by the female relatives
of the deceased and other women of the village. But again this only
lasts for a few minutes, the period being longer or shorter according
to the importance of the person who has died.

Other similar parties, coming in from other villages, go through the
same performance as they come into the village; and in each case, as
the women of each fresh party come out of the house after seeing the
corpse, there is a fresh outburst of the funeral song on the part of
all the women present, but always only for a few minutes. This goes on
till the last batch of visitors has arrived. The people of the village
know when this last batch has come, because they have been told by
cross-valley shouting which villages are sending parties. The total
number of women in the village is then generally very large. After the
last batch of visitors has arrived, and until the funeral ceremony,
all the women again break out into the funeral song for a few minutes
about once an hour in the daytime, but not so often at night.

The funeral takes place probably about twenty-four hours after
death. The body is now wrapped up by the special woman attendant,
helped by the female relatives of the deceased, in leaves, especially
banana leaves, and bark of trees, and remains so wrapped up in
the house.

It is placed with the knees bent up to the chin, and the heels to the
buttocks. In the meantime men of the village dig a grave 2 or 3 feet
deep in the village open enclosure. When all is ready the funeral
song begins again, the singers this time being the female relatives
of the deceased and the women who have come from outside villages,
but not the other women of the village of the deceased. Men of the
village then carry the corpse, wrapped and doubled up, and place it,
lying on its back, in the grave. There is no real procession from the
house to the grave, though all the people assemble at the latter;
but during the whole of the time, until the body is in the grave,
the singing by the women of the funeral song continues. As soon as
the body is in the grave, all the men, both villagers and visitors,
shout again as before, and for the same purpose. The grave is then
filled up, the women in the meantime singing as before; and when this
is done the funeral is over.

The relatives of the deceased now go into mourning. The widow or
widower or other nearest relative wears the mourning string necklace
already described. He or she, and also the other near relatives,
smear their faces, and sometimes, but not always, their bodies, with
black, to which, as regards the face, but not the body, is added oil or
water. Some more distant relatives, instead of blackening themselves,
wear the mourning shell necklace. And all this will continue,
nominally without break, until the mourning is formally removed, in
the way to be explained hereafter. As a matter of fact, the insignia
of mourning are not worn without interruption, and the black smearing
is by no means so retained; but on any special occasion the person
would take care to appear in mourning. There is a custom under which
the widow or widower or other nearest relative may, instead of wearing
the mourning string necklace, abstain during the period of mourning
from eating some particular food, of which deceased was most fond. [98]

In connection with mourning, I should also mention a curious custom,
which I understand is common, though not universal, for a woman who
has lost a child, and especially a first-born or very clear child,
to amputate the top end of one of her fingers, up to the first joint,
with an adze. Having done this once for one child, she will possibly
do it again for another child; and a woman has been seen with three
fingers mutilated in this way. [99]

The family of the deceased invite men and women from some other
community, but only one community, to a funeral feast, which is
held after an interval of two or three days from the day of the
funeral. On the day appointed these guests arrive. They are all well
ornamented, but, with one exception, they do not wear their dancing
ornaments. One of them, however, usually a chief or the son of a chief
of the community invited, comes in his full dancing ornaments. All
the guest men bring with them their spears, and perhaps adzes or clubs.

When they arrive the following performances take place, the village
enclosure being left by the villagers empty and open:--First two guest
women enter the village enclosure at one end, and run in silence round
it, brandishing spears in both hands, as at the big feast; but they
make no hostile demonstration. When these two women have reached their
starting point, they again do the same thing, brandishing their spears
as before, and all the guest men, except the specially dressed one,
follow them by advancing with a dancing step along the enclosure,
they also brandishing their spears, and also being silent. Thus the
whole group goes to the other end of the village, passing the grave
of the deceased as they do so; then they turn round, and come back
again in the same way, but on their return they stop before they
reach the grave.

Then the specially ornamented guest man enters alone, without his arms,
but with his drum, which he beats. He dances up the village enclosure
in a zigzag course, going from side to side of the enclosure, and
always facing in the direction in which he is at the time moving; and
during his advance he beats his drum., but otherwise he and all the
other people are silent. When in this way he has reached the grave,
the chief of the clan of the village where the funeral takes place,
who does not wear any dancing ornaments, approaches him, and removes
his heavy head ornament. This ends the first part of the ceremony;
and the villagers and guests then chat and conduct themselves in the
ordinary way.

Plates 82 and 83 illustrate scenes at a funeral feast in the village
of Amalala. In the former plate the grave is very clear, and the
remains of an older grave are visible behind the post a little to the
left. At the upper end of the village enclosure are the visitors, who
are about to dance along the enclosure past the grave, and then back
again up to it. The figures in the _emone_ behind are Amalala men,
watching the performance. In the latter plate the visitor chief is
seen dancing along the village enclosure towards the grave.

In the meantime the members of the family of the deceased bring in one
or more village pigs and some vegetables. A number of sticks are laid
upon the ground over the grave, the sticks crossing each other so as
to form a rude ground platform (this is not done by any particular
person), and these sticks are covered with banana leaves. [100] The
pigs are placed on this platform, and are then killed by the pig-killer
and cut up, and the vegetables and pieces of pig are distributed by
the chief of the clan, helped perhaps by the family of the deceased,
among the male visitors. The one specially dressed visitor, being
the only one who has really danced, gets much the largest share. For
example, if there be two or more pigs, he will get an entire pig for
himself. Then the ceremony is over, and the guests return home. The
wood of the platform is not removed from the grave, but is left to
rot there. The killing of the pigs at this ceremony is regarded as
the act which will, they think, finally propitiate or drive away the
ghost of the departed.

It will be noticed that, though representatives from several
communities may be invited and come to the funeral, only one community
is invited to the subsequent funeral feast, just as only one community
is invited to the big feast, which latter we must, I think, associate
with the general superstitious idea of laying the ghosts of past
departed chiefs and notables. I cannot say what is the reason for the
confinement of these invitations to one community only, but it must, I
think, have had some definite origin [101]; and as to this I am struck
by the similarity of the Massim idea, referred to by Dr. Seligmann,
that an individual's death primarily concerns the dead man's hamlet
and one other hamlet of his clan, with which certain death feasts
are exchanged, other members of the clan being comparatively little
affected. [102]

As soon as possible after the funeral pig-killing, they catch some
wild pig or pigs, and kill and eat them, and sweep down the village
by way of purification ceremony, very much as they do in the case
of the big feast, except that it is on a very much smaller scale,
and that the people do not afterwards leave the village.

The ceremony of removal of the mourning may take place after an
interval of only a week or two, or of so much as six months, the
date often depending upon the occurrence of some other ceremony,
at which the removal of the mourning can be carried out without
necessitating a ceremony for itself only. Visitors from some
other community attend. The ceremony only applies to the nearest
relative--the person who wears the string necklace; but, on his or
her mourning being ceremoniously removed, the mourning of all others
in respect of the same deceased ceases automatically. [103] This
nearest relative has to provide a village pig. There is a feast,
and dancing and pig-killing and distribution of food and pig, in
the usual way, and this may be in the village of the deceased or
in some other village of the community. The pig-killing is done by
the pig-killer under the platform of a chiefs platform grave, or on
the site of it. The pig, specially provided by the nearest relative,
is bought and paid for by some person, as in the case of some of the
ceremonies already described, and this person, after the killing of
the pig, without special ceremony, cuts off the mourner's string
necklace, dips it in the blood of the pig, and throws it away;
then he takes some coloured paint, usually red, and with it daubs
two lines on each side of the face across the cheek of the mourner,
who of course at this ceremony will still have his black paint. If
the mourner has been refraining from food, instead of wearing the
necklace, the ceremony is confined to the paint-daubing. Then the
mourner pays this ceremonial pig-buyer for his services, probably in
feathers or dog-teeth, and the mourning is at an end.

There will at a later date be a purification ceremony, at which wild
pigs will be killed, such as has already been described. [104]

Death and Burial.

_(Chiefs.)_

A dying chief is attended by the special woman and others in the
way above described, except that many women of the clan are there,
and that this special attendance and its accompanying wailing begin
earlier, perhaps two or three days earlier, than in the case of an
ordinary person, and that all the women of the clan who are not in
the house wail outside it.

In this case, however, there is a special ceremony for ascertaining
whether or not the chief is in fact going to die--a ceremony which is
usually performed at his own request. Some vegetable food, probably
sweet potato, or perhaps sugar-cane or taro, is given him to eat;
and this he will do although he may be very ill, and may not have been
taking food, though of course, if he were insensible or unable to eat,
this special ceremony could not be carried out. The inedible portions
of this food, _e.g.,_ the peel of the potato or the hard fibres of
the sugar-cane, are then handed to certain magical persons of the
community, whose special duty it is to perform the ceremony about to be
described, but as to whom I was unable to ascertain who and what they
are, and whether they have any other special functions besides those
of this ceremony. Some of these portions of food may even be sent to
some similar magic person of high reputation in another community,
in order that he also may perform the same ceremony. Each of these
magic persons also has handed to him a portion of a perineal band
belonging to, and recently worn by, the ailing chief.

Each of the magic men then wraps up the portion of food which has
been given to him in the piece of band; and this he again wraps up in
leaves, and continues doing so until the parcel has become a round
ball 4 or 5 inches in diameter. The men then separate, and each of
them goes off alone to a spot outside the village, where he collects
some very dry firewood, and heaps it up against the trunk of a tree
to a height of, say, 6 feet. He then engages in an incantation, after
which he puts the ball inside the bottom of the wood pile, and lights
the pile at the bottom. Then he lies down by this fire and closes his
eyes. After an interval of perhaps two to five minutes he gets up,
as though awakening from a bad dream, and hears the wailing in the
adjoining village, and asks himself what all this wailing is about;
and he then appears to remember for what purpose he is there, goes to
the fire, and takes out the ball. If the fire has burnt or scorched
the food wrapped up in the ball, it is an indication that the chief
is to die. If not, it indicates that he will live. These magic men
then return to the village, and report the result. If their report
be that the chief is going to live, the people cease their wailing,
but if it be that he is to die, the wailing continues.

Pausing here for a moment, I may admit that, though I have told
the tale of this ceremony, with its private cogitations--real or
pretended--of the magic men, as it was told to me, the tale is open
to obvious questions. How can a magic man from a distant community
hear the wailing? What would happen if the results of the ceremonies
of the various magic men were to differ? What would be the situation
if a chief whose death was indicated by the ceremony lived, or if one
whose recovery was foretold became worse and died? All these points
I tried to elucidate without success; but possibly the answer to the
query as to divergence of results may be that the men take care that
the results of their experiments shall not differ.

It is believed by the natives that, if a hostile community can secure
some of the food remnants and band, and hand them to their own magic
man, for him to go through the same ceremony, he may maliciously
bring about an unfavourable result, and thus may cause the death
of the chief. If the belief that such a thing had happened arose,
it would be a _casus belli_ with that other community; and a case is
known in which an inter-community fight did occur on this ground.

If the report be that the chief is to die, the special woman attendant
will give him the blow on the head, as in the case of the ordinary
villager. The shouting of the men outside when the chiefs death is
announced is much louder than in the case of a commoner; and as they
shout they brandish their spears, and strike the roof of the chiefs
house with the spear points, and some of the men strike it with
adzes and clubs. The spreading of the news to other communities is
on a wider scale, and the number of people who respond to the news
and come to the funeral is very great, and includes a larger number
of chiefs and prominent men; there are more, and much larger, parties
of them. The funeral song of the women, commenced on the announcement
of death, lasts much longer--indeed for hours. In fact, as numerous
large bodies of people keep coming in, and some of these coming from
a distance may not arrive until just before the funeral, and as the
funeral song has to be recommenced as each fresh party comes in,
and lasts so much longer each time, it follows that this funeral song
practically continues without ceasing from the moment when death is
announced until the actual funeral. The immediate smearing by men and
women of their bodies with mud is done by all the members of the entire
community. When the guests reach the village, they are all, both men
and women, smeared with mud, and they loudly call on the dead chief
by his title _amidi_, or as _babe_ (father). Also the various chiefs'
wives among the guests remain in the house after seeing the body,
instead of coming out with the other guest women.

The funeral does not take place till thirty-six or forty-eight hours
after the death. The various chiefs' wives take part in the wrapping
up of the body; and to the ordinary wrappings are added large pieces
of bark cloth.

The grave [105] is quite different from that of a commoner. There are
two methods of sepulture adopted for chiefs, the grave being in both
cases in or by the edge of the open village enclosure.

The first of these methods is a burial platform, a very rough erection
of upright poles from 9 to 12 feet high, the number of which may be
four, or less or more than that, at the top of which erection is a
rude wooden box-shaped receptacle, about 2 or 3 feet square, and from
6 inches to a foot deep, and uncovered at the top, in which receptacle
the corpse is placed. Sometimes the supporting structure, instead
of being composed of a number of poles, is only a rough tree trunk,
on which the lower ends of the branches are left to support the box.

The second method is tree burial. The tree in which this is done is
a special form of fig tree called _gabi_, the burial box, similar to
the one above described, being placed in its lowest fork, or, if that
be already occupied, then in the next one, and so on. [106] A tree
has been seen with six of these boxes in it, one above another. This
tree is specially used for such burials. The natives will never cut it
down. In selecting a village site they will often specially choose one
where one of these trees is growing; and indeed the presence of such
a tree in the bush raises a probability that there is, or has been,
a native village there. [107]

If a burial platform afterwards falls down through decay, the people
throw away all the bones, except the skull and the larger bones of the
arms and legs; and these they deal with in one of three alternative
ways. They either (1) dig a shallow grave in the ground under the
fallen platform, and put the skull and special bones there, and then
fill in the grave with soil, on this put a heap of stones, and on these
put the wooden remains of the collapsed platform, planting round them
tobacco or croton, or some other fine-leaved plant, or (2) they put
the skull and special bones in a box on the _gabi_ burying tree, or
(3) they take them to the _emone_, and there hang them up till they
are wanted for a big feast. In the same way, if a tree box falls,
they retain only the skull and large arm and leg bones, and replace
them in a new box in the same tree.

We have already seen a chiefs burial platform in the two plates 69 and
70 relating to the big feast at Seluku, and the following plates are
additional illustrations:--Plate 84 is the grave of a chiefs child in
the village of Malala. The supports of the grave rise from the village
enclosure fence behind, and are quite distinct from the underground
commoner's grave, which is seen in front. The positions of the two
graves can be seen in the general view of the village (Plate 58). Plate
85 is a group of graves of chiefs and chiefs' relatives in the village
of Tullalave (community of Auga). Plate 86 shows the grave of a chiefs
child in the village of Faribe (community of Faribe). The form of this
grave is quite different from those of the others, and is not, I think,
so common, but a grave somewhat resembling it is seen in Plate 60.

Plate 87 is a _gabi_ fig tree, used for tree burial, near to the
village of Seluku, and Plate 88 shows the remains of an old burial
box in one of its forks. The bones are still in this box, and indeed
one of them may be just discerned at the extreme left, close to the
upright stem of the tree.

Plate 89 illustrates what I have said as to what is done when a burial
platform falls down from decay. The skull and larger arm and leg bones
of the body have been buried underground, and upon these have been
heaped first stones and then the remains of the collapsed platform, and
one little foliage plant and dried-up looking specimens of others can
be seen around it. This picture was taken in the village of Seluku,
and the actual position of the grave in the village enclosure is
seen in Plate 55. Plate 90, of an _emone_ in the village of Voitele
(community of Sivu) illustrates the alternative plan of hanging the
skull and bones up in the _emone_.

At the funeral all the women present, those of the village and of
the whole community and the guests, join in singing the funeral song;
but here again there is no actual procession, and the carrying of the
body is not necessarily entrusted to any particular person. When the
grave, whether on a platform or on a tree, is reached, all the men
present begin to shout loudly, and there is a terrible noise. They all
have their spears, but there is no brandishing of them. Then some men
(anyone may do this) climb up to the box, and others hand the wrapped
body up to them, and they place it lying on its back in the box. This
ends the actual burial ceremony.

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23