Identifier: womenofallnation01joyc (find matches)
Title: Women of all nations, a record of their characteristics, habits, manners, customs and influence;
Year: 1908 (1900s)
Authors: Joyce, Thomas Athol, 1878-1942 Thomas, Northcote Whitridge, 1868-
Subjects: Women
Publisher: London, New York (etc.) : Cassell and Company, limited
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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s to Europeans. Mungo Park, in his travels, always foundthat native women were of great help tohim in evading difficulties with the savagetribes which he \-isited, and any explorer whosucceeds in obtaining the favour of this sexmay rely upon being unmolested, for, evenin tribes where they have nominally no Death andBurial. to describe many of them, irrespectivelyof whether the person to be buried be aman or a woman. In allcases it is the womens dutyto lament the dead, and as arule the ladies of surrounding villages cometo join in the chorus. In the lower Congo, when a person hasdied, the body is put on a kind of scaffoldunder a shed and smoked over a fire ofgreen wood. When the corpse is sufficientlydried, it is wrapped in cloth ; the richer thedeceased, the more cloth is used; thus awealthy person when prepared for buriallooks like an enormous bale of cloth. Thebody is then exposed in a hut for a periodwhich may extend to several months. On theday of the funeral all the people of the
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A MARRIED BANGALA COUPLE.Notice the womans shaven head, and the scar tattooing on the forehead and scalp. 326 WOMEN OF ALL NATIONS country gather in the village of the deceased,and, to the sound of drums, tom-toms,whistles, and the howling of the women, thecorpse is carried to the grave, where allwho have guns fire them off. Then eatingand drinking begins, finishing up v.ith ageneral dance which does not terminateuntil morning. The tomb is decoratedwith the deceaseds belongings, such aspots, empty bottles, liousehold articles,which are killed by breaking them, thattheir spirits may follow their owner to theother world. In the Kwilu diminutive huts are erectedin memory of the dead, in which offeringsare placed by relations and friends, con-sisting of food and palm-wine : it is, perhaps,thought that the soul returns to partake ofthem. Great importance is attached tothe faithful discharge of this duty; for,if neglected, it is believed that the deceasedis sure to visit the culprits in the

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