Young children of a few days old are not formally mourned for, and are buried by the women only. People who die of the _mwavi_ ordeal are not buried at all; they are looked on as accursed and their bodies thrown away into the bush to be eaten by hyenas. This is also sometimes done with slaves. Men killed in battle, if their friends can get possession of the body at all, are not taken home, but buried on the war-path. Slaves used to be sacrificed at the death of a Yao chief, but only in certain clans (the Abanda, Amilansi, and perhaps others); ten for an important chief, or fewer for one of less standing. The master’s death was kept secret for a time, till the required number had been secured in slave-sticks. They were killed at the grave-side and thrown in before the body was lowered. Sometimes they were buried alive, and this was done till recently by the Atonga, who, if one slave was buried with a chief, made him lie in the grave, clasping the dead man in his arms. If there were several, they sat in the grave facing each other, and the corpse was laid across their knees. If any of them sneezed after taking his place in the grave, his life was spared, as it was believed that the spirit thus signified his refusal of that particular victim. Mr George Pirie says of the Babemba, that the people so sacrificed died willingly; and indeed slaves are often sufficiently attached to their masters to make such devotion possible. The funeral ceremonies of the Atonga include some interesting details not mentioned above; some of them may be Yao and Nyanja also, but I cannot find any record of them. I quote the account of the Rev. A. C. MacAlpine:— ‘In taking the body out of the hut, exit was not made by the door, for by that the living only passed out, and they must not slight the dead by treating him as if he were still alive. So they broke down the back wall of the hut opposite the door, and through the hole so made passed out with the body. The children of the village had meanwhile been told to hide out of the way, although the children of the deceased were brought up to the bier and lifted over it by the _azukuru_.[21] Before they bore the corpse away, they swung it to and fro outside the hut, where it had passed out, chanting the while, “We are leaving to-day; we follow our fellows.” In front of the procession walked a man blowing a reed whistle, while other mourners followed the bier carrying weapons, utensils, trinkets, and offerings to be buried in the grave or laid on the top. Last of all went a woman with a hoe and a basket, into which she dropped various roots growing beside the path which the funeral had followed, and which she had dug up with the hoe. These were hurriedly prepared by her as a charm with which to purify the party on their return from the graves to the village.