Abstract
Burial of a Bari Rain-maker. The burial of a rain-chief in the Bari country, Mongalla Province, Sudan, is described by Mr. A. C. Barton in Sudan Notes and Records, vol. 15, pt. 1. The rain-maker's last illness took place during a drought, and, as was ascertained by the performance of a special rite, had been caused by a more powerful rain-maker, who attributed to him the failure of his own efforts to bring rain. The grave was of a special type reserved for rain-makers, chiefs and influential freemen. It lay from east to west, and from the west, descent to the bottom of the excavation was by two steps cut in the earth. The interment chamber proper was cut laterally and frontally into the north and east sides of the excavation. The funeral ceremonies began with secret rites, to which only the close kin were admitted, in the house, which was closed immediately after death. These rites included the shaving and anointing of the corpse, the hair being placed in a calabash to be disposed of later in the bush. At the graveside, women who had not been present inside the house again anointed the body over its clothes, and the sons after anointing the back of the corpse down to the waist, again over its clothes, with ground and burnt semen returned to the house, observing a grass taboo, in walking, where they remained until earth had been thrown into the grave. A small son of a serf had been chosen as a serf of the dead, and when the corpse had been laid to rest in the chamber as on a bed, this boy remained by the corpse until it opened in final decay, when he came out of the grave and proclaimed the chief really dead. Large slabs of stone, sacking, etc., blocked the entrance of the cavity, so that no earth could fall on the chief, and above the grave were placed carved grave stakes, of which one had two prongs, a ‘male’ and a ‘female’, while the smaller is the ‘sentinel’. These were brought from the father's grave and will remain on the chief's grave until required for his son's burial. A mourning feast and dance follow the burial.
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Research Items. Nature 131, 29–31 (1933). https://doi.org/10.1038/131029a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/131029a0