policy derived from ancestors who found it necessary. In the
kingdom of Apollonia (Guinea) the tenth child was always buried
alive; never a Decimus was allowed to stand in the way of the
nine seniors. The birth of twins is an evil portent to the
Mpongwes, as it is in many parts of Central Africa, and even in
the New World; it also involves the idea of moral turpitude, as
if the woman were one of the lower animals, capable of
superfetation. There is no greater insult to a man, than to point
at him with two fingers, meaning that he is a twin; of course he
is not one, or he would have been killed at birth. Albinos are
allowed to live, as in Dahome, in Ashanti, and among some East
African tribes, where I have been "chaffed" about a brother
white, who proved to be an exceptional negro without pigmentum
nigrum.

There is no novelty in the Mpongwe funeral rites; the same system
prevails from the Oil Rivers to Congo-land, and extends even to
the wild races of the interior. The corpse, being still sentient,
is accompanied by stores of raiment, pots, and goats' flesh; a
bottle is placed in one hand and a glass in the other, and, if
the deceased has been fond of play, his draught-board and other
materials are buried with him. The system has been well defined
as one in which the "ghost of a man eats the ghost of a yam,
boiled in the ghost of a pot, over the ghost of a fire." The
body, after being stretched out in a box, is carried to a lonely
place; some are buried deep, others close to the surface. There
is an immense show of grief, with keening and crocodiles' tears,
perhaps to benefit the living by averting a charge of witchcraft,
which would inevitably lead to "Sassy" or poison-water. The wake
continues for five days, when they "pull the cry," that is to