A ROYAL FUNERAL. ., ,., gi father, and cohabits with them, his own mother excepted, wuo, however, does not enjoy the consideration she would receive in Uganda. When one of Kabréga’s wives is pregnant, a matongali is summoned, in whose charge she is placed, and a district is set apart for her support. She remains there until she is delivered, and does not return until the child is three or four years old. Girls remain with the mother in the kino’s zerida, and “when grown up, may be married to their own father.” Boys, after they have stayed some years on the king’s premises, are created matdngalis, and receive a district, in which they reside with their mother and tutor. Should the monarch die, all the tutors of the princes at once assemble and determine which of the sons of the deceased king is the best and fittest to be his successor. Naturally, the decision is seldom unanimous, but parties are formed and war breaks out, and continues until one of the princes overcomes his rivals, and gains possession of the throne, standing in the mortuary-hut of his father, whereupon his authority is recognised. Then his brothers and nearest relations, with few exceptions, are killed, for so custom demands (in Uganda they are burned).

The corpse of the deceased ruler is washed immediately after death, anointed again and again with fresh butter, and, wrapped in heht bark cloths, is placed on a high platform in a hut and zeriba erected on purpose. Under the platform a fire burns day and night—the favourite wives and servants of the deceased are present all the time—until the body is thoroughly dried and smoked; then the favourite steer of the deceased is killed, its hide dressed, and the corpse wrapped in it and in a quantity of bark cloth and other hides. The corpse remains in the house with the wives and servants until the war between the claimants to the throne is ended, ‘This often lasts for years, and the new king’s first duty is the burial of his father with the ceremonies, occasionally slightly varied, which Baker has. described. In Unyoéro, moreover, it is customary for the king, as soon as he falls seriously ill, or begins-to break up from age, to be killed by his own wives, for, according to an old prophecy, the throne will pass away from the dynasty of the Wawitu in the event of a king dying ‘a natural death.