Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 18, 1907.djvu/120

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In a family, as well as at a national feast, portions are set aside in memory of the dead in a corner of the house, or in a public place, according to the nature of the feast.

West African feasts are intended to heal family breaches and awaken mutual sympathy, or to arouse patriotic zeal and create national fire; and, as everyone is willing to honour the dead and to forego everything and all grievance for their sakes, the feasts are dedicated to their memory. To prevent the occasion being too ephemeral, portions are set aside for them for days together, and the belief that they do come to eat it makes the most greedy refrain from touching them.

Over the corpse of a parent the younger children are generally passed three times.

This is to warn members of the family against taking undue advantage of the children of the deceased. Three and seven are to most West Africans what the latter number is to the Hebrews.