All
races of men through countless ages, have been attempting to make
their peculiar deities understand how they are wanted to work, and
what they are wanted to do, and the result is anything but
encouraging.
As I have dwelt on the repellent view of Negro funeral custom, I
must in justice to them cite their better view. There is a custom
that I missed much on going south of Calabar, for it is a pretty
one. Outside the villages in the Calabar districts, by the sides of
the most frequented roads, you will see erections of boughs. I do
not think these are intended for huts, but for beds, for they are
very like the Calabar type of bed, only made in wood instead of
clay. Over them a roof of mats is put, to furnish a protection
against rain.
These shelters - graves or fetish huts they are wrongly called by
Europeans - are made by driving four longish stout poles into the
ground while at the height of about three feet or so four more poles
are tied so as to make a skeleton platform which is filled in with
withies and made flat. Another set of five poles is tied above, and
to these the roof is affixed. On the platform, is placed the
bedding belonging to the deceased, the undercloth, counterpane,
etc., and at the head are laid the pillows, bolster-shaped and
stuffed with cotton-tree fluff, or shredded palm-leaves, and covered
with some gaily-coloured cotton cloth.
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