DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49270#0061
Worship of the Dead in Uganda
39
this being about four feet high and covered with bark cloth. The man bearing the hoe
digs a shallow pit under the bedstead, which represents the grave. As there is no actual
grave, this pit may point back to a time when the entire remains were actually buried.
The body is then laid upon the bedstead and the crowds of people press forward with their
offerings of bark cloths which are stored and packed into the hut until it is quite full; the
pillars supporting the porch are then cut down and the hood falls and closes the doorway.
The widows and chiefs are brought and stand round the hut with their backs to it and are
clubbed to death, their bodies being left where they fall. In the second courtyard, from
four to five hundred victims, slaves and prisoners, are brought and executed, their bodies
being left where they fall. A guard remains in charge of the spot with orders not to allow
wild beasts or birds of prey to touch the bodies or to carry them off. During the following
six months the place is left to the guards and to a number of widows who are appointed
to carry out a system of cultivation round the enclosure, to plant plantain trees, and thus
prepare the place for their future home.
At the end of six months a chief is appointed by the king to visit the mausoleum and
remove the jawbone from the body of the late king; this is then taken for cleansing and
decoration, and is finally placed in a temple. The jawbone goes through a prolonged
process before it is at last put into the temple prepared for it. First it is put into a nest
of ants for three or four days for them to eat off any flesh, next it is put into a well of
clear spring water for a day or two’s washing. This well is sacred and is guarded for this
special purpose. The bone is then dried and afterwards washed with plantain wine and
milk. At the close of these purificatory rites it is covered with a leather case made from
a lion skin, the outside of which is decorated with beads and cowries called “the
money of the ghost”. When chiefs are installed they make offerings of beads and
cowries which are especially reserved to serve this purpose after the king’s death. A
wooden basin is carved from a tree trunk with a stand a foot high and almost as wide, and
into this the jawbone is put, the basin and its contents being then wrapped in bark cloth
and afterwards in leopard’s skin. The vessel is then taken and placed in the temple.
With the jawbone the decorated stump of the umbilical cord of the deceased king is placed,
to fulfil the necessary conditions for deification. The temple is built by the king some
time before his death in the grounds of his enclosure; he personally superintends this
building and has the work done carefully and well. The temple precludes the succeeding
king from occupying the site of his predecessor’s palace, and the widows who are to care
for the place reside on the spot. Owing to the perishable nature of the structure, the
temple has to be rebuilt every five or six years but the size' is not so great nor is the work-
manship so good as at the first; still these temples are maintained for hundreds of years
with their staff of widows guarding them. In the temple a dais is constructed on which
39
this being about four feet high and covered with bark cloth. The man bearing the hoe
digs a shallow pit under the bedstead, which represents the grave. As there is no actual
grave, this pit may point back to a time when the entire remains were actually buried.
The body is then laid upon the bedstead and the crowds of people press forward with their
offerings of bark cloths which are stored and packed into the hut until it is quite full; the
pillars supporting the porch are then cut down and the hood falls and closes the doorway.
The widows and chiefs are brought and stand round the hut with their backs to it and are
clubbed to death, their bodies being left where they fall. In the second courtyard, from
four to five hundred victims, slaves and prisoners, are brought and executed, their bodies
being left where they fall. A guard remains in charge of the spot with orders not to allow
wild beasts or birds of prey to touch the bodies or to carry them off. During the following
six months the place is left to the guards and to a number of widows who are appointed
to carry out a system of cultivation round the enclosure, to plant plantain trees, and thus
prepare the place for their future home.
At the end of six months a chief is appointed by the king to visit the mausoleum and
remove the jawbone from the body of the late king; this is then taken for cleansing and
decoration, and is finally placed in a temple. The jawbone goes through a prolonged
process before it is at last put into the temple prepared for it. First it is put into a nest
of ants for three or four days for them to eat off any flesh, next it is put into a well of
clear spring water for a day or two’s washing. This well is sacred and is guarded for this
special purpose. The bone is then dried and afterwards washed with plantain wine and
milk. At the close of these purificatory rites it is covered with a leather case made from
a lion skin, the outside of which is decorated with beads and cowries called “the
money of the ghost”. When chiefs are installed they make offerings of beads and
cowries which are especially reserved to serve this purpose after the king’s death. A
wooden basin is carved from a tree trunk with a stand a foot high and almost as wide, and
into this the jawbone is put, the basin and its contents being then wrapped in bark cloth
and afterwards in leopard’s skin. The vessel is then taken and placed in the temple.
With the jawbone the decorated stump of the umbilical cord of the deceased king is placed,
to fulfil the necessary conditions for deification. The temple is built by the king some
time before his death in the grounds of his enclosure; he personally superintends this
building and has the work done carefully and well. The temple precludes the succeeding
king from occupying the site of his predecessor’s palace, and the widows who are to care
for the place reside on the spot. Owing to the perishable nature of the structure, the
temple has to be rebuilt every five or six years but the size' is not so great nor is the work-
manship so good as at the first; still these temples are maintained for hundreds of years
with their staff of widows guarding them. In the temple a dais is constructed on which