In concluding this survey of the traditional beliefs (other than folk-tales) of County Clare, I am quite prepared to learn that I have failed to secure much that is well known to residents in the county. Even my mistakes and omissions, if they lead the people of Clare to abandon their apathy and to correct and supply the deficiencies of my notes, will have helped on the cause of Irish folklore study, and much that is on the point of being forgotten may be rescued for scientific workers on that most important and fascinating subject.[1]
- ↑ Additional Erratum, vol. xii., p. 54. For Terry Island read Torry Island.
Customs at Death on the Lower Congo.
The following notes are additions to those already published in Folk-Lore[1] concerning burial, mourning, and other customs and beliefs connected with death on the Lower Congo.
Burial fees.—The fee for digging a grave is a fowl for each person. If a visitor dies in a town, his people have to pay a pig for the right of burial. If the corpse is taken away, a pig must be paid to the people of every town through which it is carried. This has the effect of reducing the risks of catching infectious diseases, as the bearers, to avoid such heavy fees, will take a body to its native town by wide detours instead of over the usual paths. The body is, however, allowed to pass free if it is that of a man killed by a wild animal, or of a woman dead in childbirth.
Purification.—Those who dig a grave must go straight to running water and wash themselves all over. Those who touch a corpse must wash their hands and arms. Those who have dug a grave or touched a corpse cross their outstretched arms until they have washed. With this sign that they are unclean, no one will want to salute them or to shake hands.
Chiefs' funerals; property put in graves.—When a chief died in French Congo in November, 1908, his coffin, made by a native carpenter of my acquaintance, measured 12 ft. by 3 ft. 6 in., and
- ↑ Vol. xix., pp. 415-6, 421-3, 428-31; vol. XX., pp. 52, 55-6, 58-61, 465, 475.
