Note note 8 — NOTES TO PART I

3458 Burial postponed (p. 24).--It is not uncommon to postpone the funeral of an important person for many months, and even years. The writer once buried a man who had been dead for nearly fifteen years. The persons responsible put off the expense as long as possible, and it is probable they would not then have interred the corpse, but the King ordered the family “to finish the palaver.” There was another case of a body being left unburied for over twenty years because the man who was responsible for the cost of the funeral believed that he would “die the day after he buried the corpse.” Many thought that this was only an excuse to avoid the expense. The body was dried, wound in cloth, stored in a house specially built for the purpose, and guarded by relays of young women.