Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1886-12-23
AN ODD CEREMONY.
The Burial of an African King by the MOI
Cub

The Burial of an African King by the Noisy
Savage Subjects.
Among the passengers on board the
schooner Lottie Beard, brought to this
port from Kabenda on her recent pas
sage was young M NIL Ct perhaps
seventeen, who attracted the es OF
the obsezEexssthat had gathered on the
wharf to witness the arrival of the veA
sell
The young mans name was Arch
Steel, and his native place Denniso6,
Iowa. He is son OF a well-to-do fhr-
niture dealer of that place, and
Methodist missionary. He went away
last March and returned because of
inconsistencies.
He was one of Bishop I STganris colony
that left for Africa in$ y 18th, which
consisted Of twenty-sevSn ebRS s& in
Guiding men, women and --ildren, and
apprentices. 1t sailed by Eeamer from
New York on the goth Q last March,
and first landed at MadeiR The next
port was Teneriffe, one of the largest
islands of the Canary group, where
day or two was spent. At Grand
Canary islands short stay was made,
which allowed the party time to visit the
Jesuit Cathedral. A change of steamers
was here made, and the party embarked
aboard the steamer Nubian and Sierra
Leone.
Proceeding down the coast, Mayambia
was reached, which was the headquar-
tiers at that time of Bishop TAYLOR
With Bishop Taylor the party proceed
ed and arrived at Kabenda the goth OF
May.
upon first landing at Kebanda,"
said Mr.. Steel, I'VE were met by the
Governor of the place and invited to
dinner and supper with him. The next
day he picked out place for us to
pitch our tents and gave us couple of
natives to help do our work, which we
paid by giving them q certain guam
tity of cloth. Kabenda comprises a
settlement of fifty-four towns within
distance of ten miles of the bay where
we landed, with a population of $780,
600. Shortly after we arrived at Ka-
benda King of one of the more inn
portant towns died, and whenever a
King dies a week is taken to bury him.
I'm this case huge coffin twelve
feet long, nine feet high and three feet
wide was built on a rack six feet high
with immense wheels. 1t was only a
short distance from the Kings house
to the burial-place, but the rack
is moved only a short distance each
day. A large delegation of natives
the coffin, and they made the day and
night hideous with the noises from their
rude instruments, the principal one be-
ing a tom-tom or native drum.
"a big bell is suspended from the
of
The crowd around the funeral rack at
night is larger than in the daytime, and
everybody dances. That is, they turn
round and round in one spot, but do not
move in a circle.
The most impressive part of the
ceremony is that performed by gilley-
Everybody gets drunk on the rum,
and which is great deal worse than
of the natives are holding services
around the coffin, another party is en-
gagged in digging an immense grave,
which was over twenty feet deep. The |
grave is always dug at night by the |
light of torches made of native gum, |
and carried by women on the edge of |
the grave.
Singing is kept up throughout the
night. On the morning of the last day
the coffin is lowered into the grave and |
the natives dispense to their homes. |
Nearly all the men on the coast have
coats which they obtained from sailors
in steamers by selling them parrots,
and the women nearly all have gar
ments of American cloth.
''Witchcraft prevails to a certain ex-
tent among the natives of Kabenda, and |
if any person has been offended in any |
manner by another person he charges
him with witchcraft, and the gilley-
gilley doctors take him in charge and |
dose of sasSwood. If the
mixture makes the person vomit he is
adjudged not guilty of witchcraft, but
if he does not vomit he is looked upon
as witch. His lands and goods are
taken from him and given to the per-
son whom he has offended. This has
been done since our party landed there,
and it is hard to make them believe
there is no such thing as witchcraft. -
NeaU Bedford Cor. Boston Globe.