Note 56.4 — THE SCOPE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Rev. E. Casalis, The Basutos, p. 267. The writer tells us (pp. 255 sq.) that “death with all that immediately precedes or follows it, is in the eyes of these people the greatest of all defilements. Thus the sick, persons who have touched or buried a corpse, or who have dug the grave, individuals who inadvertently walk over or sit upon a grave, the near relatives of a person deceased, murderers, warriors who have killed their enemies in battle, are all considered impure.” No doubt all such persons would also be prohibited from handling the corn.