File:A voice from the Congo - comprising stories, anecdotes, and descriptive notes (1910) (14596924180).jpg

Identifier: voicefromcongoco00ward (find matches)
Title: A voice from the Congo : comprising stories, anecdotes, and descriptive notes
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: Ward, Herbert, 1863-1919
Subjects: Ward, Herbert, 1863-1919 Africa, Central -- Description and travel Africa, Central -- Social life and customs
Publisher: New York : Charles Scribner's Sons
Contributing Library: University of Connecticut Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Connecticut Libraries

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ont of the dead chiefs former abode. In the distance I could hear the mournful wailingof many women, and it was in that direction I turnedmy steps. On my way I passed several groups ofsullen-faced savages, standing half-concealed in thedense foliage. Armed with murderous-looking knives and spears,the men wore feather head-dresses, and their faceswere blackened with palm-oil and charcoal: theyscarcely acknowledged my salutation, and they allseemed excited and absorbed in conversation. Drawing near to the place from whence the wailingwomens laments filled the air, I noticed severalnaked men and women, with their arms and legsmanacled, and their necks secured in the branchedforks of heavy poles. These unhappy people, Ilearnt, were the slaves and wives of the deceasedchief. A few steps further brought me within viewof a most extraordinary spectacle. In the middle of a clear space—the palaver-ground, surrounded by grass huts, backed by a tallpalm forest—about three hundred naked women,
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PC 2 THE FUNERAL OF AN AFRICAN CHIEF Gl their faces and bodies bedaubed with white and redchalk, were kneeling and swaying their bodies to andfro, as if keeping time to their sorrowful moaning. In the centre of this curious gathering the body ofthe dead chief was placed in a sitting posture upona wooden dais. The head was surmounted by a hugefeather head-dress. The face and body were paintedwhite, with a broad black stripe about two incheswide extending down the face from forehead to chin.The body, which was visible to the waist, was dottedwith large yellow spots, and the arms were paintedred. Two old crockery soup-plates—obtained incourse of barter from the coast traders—were placedon each breast, supported by a string around thebody. Inside the arms were placed the decoratedstocks of two inverted flintlock guns. A strip ofyellow cloth was tied around the neck and elbows,and upon each wrist was placed a collection ofhighly polished iron bracelets. In front of the body,upon the gr

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