Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1883-10-17
A Funeral ON the Congo.
respondence Of the London News.

Correspondence Of the London News.
On the evening of the first days journey we
stopped at village called Itimba, near the point
where the Congo begins to narrow down from
breadth of nine or ten miles to few hundred
yards. Here, at Itimba, we found the people
just about to proceed to the obseQuies Of dead
fellOw-townsman an old man apparently OF
some social standing The chief and his sub
jects were in some perplexity. OF late years
it has become "derigueur," since guns were in
PRODUCED into the upper Congo regions, to fire
a salute over the body of a defunct person, espe-
cialy if he be OF any distinction; and the inhabi-
tants Of this village, possessing only pitiful
old flintlOck among them, and that terribly out
of repair, were hesitating when we arrived as
to what course they should pursue-whether
they should charge and fire this one dilapidated
gun and risk it's bursting, or whether the de-
ceased should be allowed to wend his way to
the land of spirits unhOnored and unsaluted.
Seeing their perplexity, Lient. Orban volun-
teered to fire of round OF twenty cartridges
from his "Winchester." The chief and people
were delighted. Could there be greater honor
salute at the hands of a white man. with his
wonderful gun, from Mputo-the mysterious
region beyond the seattle Unknown perhaps
heaven itself2 (FOr are not these white men
sons of heavenly
So thought the old chief as he led us to see
the corpse. With an earnest, pleading tone he
took our hands In his and said: ''Oh, YOU who
are going homeland he pointed to the pale
and peaceful evening sky-"You will send him
back to US, will you not? You will tell him his
hut is waiting for him; his wives will prepare
his maninc white as cotton cloth, and there shall
be Malafn in plenty, and goat killed. You
will send him back, will you not?" This ex-
preston Of feeling quite took us by surprise
Ordinarily the African chief is so stolid, so
thoroughly material, that one never expects
from i'm, nvr<IS yrr s1yo on%i
ideas. We tried as gently as possible-for he
appealed to both of us in his distress-to ex-
plain at once our utter inability to reanimate
this hideous corpse with the breath Of life. and
TO encourage him with vague hopes that all was
not in vain, but he shook his aged grizzled head
sadly at the confession of our powerlessness
face to face with death.
The body of the dead man had been previous
ly smoked and dried over slow fire, so that
the flesh. except upon the hands, was shrunken
gaunt bones. The face had been gaudily
painted with scarlet. yellow, and white pig
mpnts, and the whole body was encrusted with
the red dye of the Camwood tree. Round the
nose and mouth was wrapped band of cloth,
and gay-patterned cOttons swathed the body
For some reason the hands were quite plump
and well covered with flesh, as ii in life. The
dead man had been placedin his grave in sit
ting posture. many layers OF native cloth lying
under him, and ready to cover him up on the
top were piles of cotton stuffs, received in
trade from the far-Of coast, and representing
to these natives considerable amount Of
wealth. In the vague, Undetermined notions
which the people here have conceived as to fu-
ture existence, everything in the Spirit World is
supposed to be pale copy Of things existing on
the earth. SO that for this reason they put CLOTH
vessels of pottery, and. in the case of chief,
dead slaves, into the graves. in order that the
deceased, on arriving in the Land of Shades,
may not appear unprovided with the necessary
means Of making fresh start III q new life. The
grave in which this man was buried. had been
dug in hut, and the head OF the corpse was not
more than two feet below the surface. We could
not ascertain whether the hut, or rather house
for 1t was q substantial building Of poles and
thatch-wOuld be abandoned or not. fancy
not, as 1t s only in the case Of chief that this
is done; and the man that was dead, although
rich and influential, was, after all, only the favor
lite slave Of the chief