[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]
DEATH AND DISPOSAL OF THE DEAD 541 oath that he will not look upon the face of a man of Ndawu. This estrangement may last for a little while, but in the end the men of Ndawu will consider among themselves, saying : “ That man may die soon and we shall not have seen each other; it is good that this avoidance cease.â€ù Then, one of them, for instance, the son of the deceased, will take a pig and give it to the man, neles mbwisnm (“ to see his mourning "), that is to have the permission to see him again. On this occasion the pig given is a well~grown one, as the man is not only sorry but angry. On the other hand, it a man were to die away from home, in a village to which he does not belong and occupied by men of another clan, his son may be very angry with the people of that village for having permitted his father to die. He will then intimate to them that unless they give hirn a pig he will seek out an opportunity of shooting one of them. Should they agree to give him what he asks he will go to the said village, taking with him an animal having the same degree of tusk-curvature as that which is promised him. This he presents to the men of that village as a contribution towards the PIGS which are to be killed and distributed to N alawan representatives of the villages present at the death-feast.‘ At the same time he takes the pig which is being given to him to assuage his anger. Thus neither the son nor the men of the village in which the death took place lose anything, but the indignation which the former felt at the death oi his father is satisï¬Åed, and, in addition, he gets the credit of having contributed a pig to the funeral ceremonies.“ The description of Apwil Naandu’s funeral agrees very generally with the rnuch less full account of the death rites given by Layard (206—8). The most important discrepancies are in relation to the pig-giving ceremonies, which his informant was probably unable to explain lucidly in the short time at Layard’s disposal. Thus the account of the presentation of PIGS and food to the guests at the death-feast does not bring out the full complexity of the distribution. It is particularly interesting, however, in that it indicates that in addition to the distribution 1 This would seem to imp! that it a man died in a village other than his own it would be the men oi this village, not his son and own fellow-villagers, who would have to supply the PIGS to be distributed during the funeral rites.- c. H. w. ' As we have seen, however, the anger caused by the death oi a great friend is not always settled thus amicably by the gift of a pig ; it may lead to ï¬Åghting (ct. Chapter VIII, p. 218).-C. H, w.
