Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/670

60 earth. Striebel says they believe that the way to this underworld is through water. Many of the nkongo pforshei travel in canoes on the Nun River and then proceed by land to the home of the dead.

When a new arrival makes his appearance here he is not allowed to associate with anyone else, and until his living relatives lift the ban against his entrance, by offerings and ceremonial dancing, he is worried and driven from place to place by all the other nkongo pforshei. For this reason offerings are made and ceremonies are performed soon after death. A feast is prepared to which friends and relatives are invited. The sacred instrument player, ngumba, is called to supply the music. In the middle of the compound-yard of the deceased three drums are placed, around which eight men dance, and play end-blown bamboo-flutes, while some play on iron double-bells. The dancing is directed by a man with a long staff.

After the dance all the huts in the compound are visited in turn. The players and dancers go before each hut-door and play and dance there for some minutes. At intervals palm-wine is partaken of by all the people in the compound. Towards evening an enclosure made of banana-leaves is formed at the back of one of the huts in the compound. On the wall of the hut a bag containing a miscellaneous collection of objects such as kaolin, pipe stems, pieces of calabash, etc., is hung upon a wooden peg. Two of the head-chief's sons are streaked with this kaolin, their loincloths twisted into the form of a tail, large leaves are placed in the hair with wooden needles, and in the mouth also a bunch of leaves. They are supposed to represent leopards and act accordingly. Running in a wild and aimless manner round the compound, they are pursued by armed men, who make gestures of the chase with their spears.