First Footsteps in East AfricaBurton, Richard Francis, Sir
History
First Footsteps in East Africa
Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
Harar -- Description and travel; Harari language; Horn of Africa -- Description and travel
In the evening I took my gun, and, accompanied by the End of Time, went
out to search for venison: the plain, however, was full of men and cattle,
and its hidden denizens had migrated. During our walk we visited the tomb
of an Eesa brave. It was about ten feet long, heaped up with granite
pebbles, bits of black basalt, and stones of calcareous lime: two upright
slabs denoted the position of the head and feet, and upon these hung the
deceased's milk-pails, much the worse for sun and wind. Round the grave
was a thin fence of thorns: opposite the single narrow entrance, were
three blocks of stone planted in line, and showing the number of enemies
slain by the brave. [23] Beyond these trophies, a thorn roofing, supported
by four bare poles, served to shade the relatives, when they meet to sit,
feast, weep, and pray.
The Bedouin funerals and tombs are equally simple. They have no favourite
cemeteries as in Sindh and other Moslem and pastoral lands: men are buried
where they die, and the rarity of the graves scattered about the country
excited my astonishment. The corpse is soon interred. These people, like
most barbarians, have a horror of death and all that reminds them of it:
on several occasions I have been begged to throw away a hut-stick, that
had been used to dig a grave. The bier is a rude framework of poles bound
with ropes of hide. Some tie up the body and plant it in a sitting
posture, to save themselves the trouble of excavating deep: this perhaps
may account for the circular tombs seen in many parts of the country.
Usually the corpse is thrust into a long hole, covered with wood and
matting, and heaped over with earth and thorns, half-protected by an oval
mass of loose stones, and abandoned to the jackals and hyenas.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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