The San Antonio light. (San Antonio, Tex.) 1883-1886, 1883-10-10
AN AFRICAN FUNERAL.
Scenes Along the Congo--Talken for Gods
A Smoked and Dried Corpse.

scenes Along the Congo--Taken for Gods
A Smoked and Dried Corpse.
Correspondence London Telegraph.
On the evening Of the first days journey we
stopped at village called Itamba, near the
point where the Congo begins to narrow down
from breadth of nine or 10 miles TO few
hundred yards. Here, at Itamba, we found
the people just about to proceed so the obse-
quies OF dead fellow townsman, an old man,
apparently of some social standing. The
Chief and his subjects were in some perplexiiy.
or late years it has become "de rigeur" since
guns were introduced into the upper Congo
regions to fire salute over.the body OF de-
funct person, especially il il be of any distinc-
ton; and the inhabitants of this village, pos
sessing only one pitiful old nintlock 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 its bursting or whether the de-
ceased should be allowed to wend
his way to the land OF spirits
unhonored and unsaldted. Seeing their per-
plexity, Lieutenant Orban volunteered to FIRE
ter" The Chief and people were delighted.
Could there be greater honor for the deceased
than to receive his farewell salute at the hands
OF a white man, with his wonderful gun, from
Mputo-the mysterious region beyond the
seattle unknown-perhaps heaven ITSELF
(for are not these white men sons OF heavenl y
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 home, and 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 manioc white as cotton
cloth, and there shall be Malafu in plenty
and goat killed. You will send him back,
will you nol?" This expression of feeling
quite took us by surprise. Ordinarily the
African Chief is so stolid, 50 thoroughly ma
terial, that one never expects from him any
thing like sentiment or poetical ideas. We
tried as gently as possible-for he appealed
to both of us in his distress--to explain
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 previously
q
flesh. except upon the hands, was shrunken
and reduced to leathery covering round the
gaunt bones. The face had been gaudiy
painted with scarlet, yellow and white pig
ments, and the whole body was encrusted
with the red dye of the camwood tree. Round
the nose and mouth was wrapped band o.
cloth, and gay-patterned cottons swathed the
body. For some reason the hands were quite
plump and well covered with flesh, as Il il
life. The dead man had been placed in hii
grave in sitting posture, many layers Of ma
tive cloth lying under him, and ready to cover
him up on the top were piles Of cotton stuff
received in trade from the far-oH coast, anC
representing to these natives a considerable,
amount Of wealth. In the vague, half-deter
mined notions which the people here hay
conceived as to future existence everything
in the spirit world is supposed to be
pale copy Of things existing on tn
earth, so for this reason they put cloth, YES
sells Of pottery, and, in the case Of Chief
dead slaves into the graves, in order that thu
deceased on arriving in the land of shade
may not appear unprovided with the necessary
means of making a fresh start In new life
The grave in which this man was buried ha'