The origin and development of the moral ideas

In several instances fasting after a death is observed only in the daytime.

David and his people fasted for Saul and Jonathan until even on the day when the news of their death arrived.63 Among the Arabs of Morocco it is the custom that if a death takes place in the morning everyone in the village refrains from food until the deceased is buried in the afternoon or evening; but if a person dies so late that he cannot be buried till the next morning the people eat at night. In the Pelew Islands, as long as the dead is unburied, fasting is observed in the daytime but not in the evening.64 In Fiji after a burial the kana-bogi, or fasting till evening, is practised for ten or twenty days.65 In Samoa it was common for those who attended the deceased to eat nothing during the day, but to have a meal at night.66 In the Tuhoe tribe of the Maoris, “when a chief of distinction died his widow and children would remain for some time within the whare potae [that is, mourning house], eating food during the night time only, never during the day.”67 The Sacs and Foxes in Nebraska formerly required that children should fast for three months after the death of a parent, except that they every day about sunset were allowed to partake of a meal made entirely of hominy.68 Among the Kansas a man who loses his wife must fast from sunrise to sunset for a year and a half, and a woman who loses her husband must observe a similar fast for a year.69 In some tribes of British Columbia and among the Thlinkets, until the dead body is buried the relatives of the deceased may eat a little at night but have to fast during the day.70 Among the Upper Thompson Indians a different

custom prevailed: “nobody was allowed to eat, drink, or smoke in the open air after sunset (others say after dusk) before the burial, else the ghost would harm them.”71

Very frequently mourners have to abstain from certain victuals only, especially flesh or fish, or some other staple or favourite food.

In Greenland everybody who had lived in the same house with the dead, or who had touched his corpse, was for some time forbidden to partake of certain kinds of food.72 Among the Upper Thompson Indians “parents bereft of a child did not eat fresh meat for several months.”73 Among the Stlatlumh of British Columbia a widow might eat no fresh food for a whole year, whilst the other members of the deceased person’s family abstained from such food for a period of from four days to as many months. A widower was likewise forbidden to eat fresh meats for a certain period, the length of which varied with the age of the person—the younger the man, the longer his abstention.74 In some of the Goajiro clans of Colombia a person is prohibited from eating flesh during the mourning time, which lasts nine days.75 Among the Abipones, when a chief died, the whole tribe abstained for a month from eating fish, their principal dainty.76 While in mourning, the Northern Queensland aborigines carefully avoid certain victuals, believing that the forbidden food, if eaten, would burn up their bowels.77 In Easter Island the nearest relatives of the dead are for a year or even longer obliged to abstain from eating potatoes, their chief article of food, or some other victuals of which they are particularly fond.78 Certain Papuans and various tribes in the Malay Archipelago prohibit persons in mourning from eating rice or sago.79 In the Andaman Islands mourners refuse to partake of their favourite viands.80 After the death of a relative the Tipperahs abstain from flesh for a week.81 The same is the case

with the Arakh, a tribe in Oudh, during the fifteen days in the month of Kuâr which are sacred to the worship of the dead.82 Among the Nayādis of Malabar the relatives of the deceased are not allowed to eat meat for ten days after his death.83 According to Toda custom the near relatives must not eat rice, milk, honey, or gram until the funeral is over.84 Among the Hindus described by Mr. Chunder Bose a widow is restricted to one scanty meal a day, and this is of the coarsest description and always devoid of fish, the most esteemed article of food in a Hindu lady’s bill of fare. The son, again, from the hour of his father’s death to the conclusion of the funeral ceremony, is allowed to take only a meal consisting of atab rice, a sort of inferior pulse, milk, ghee, sugar, and a few fruits, and at night a little milk, sugar, and fruits—a régime which lasts ten days in the case of a Brahmin and thirty-one days in the case of a Sûdra.85 In some of the sacred books of India it is said that, during the period of impurity, all the mourners shall abstain from eating meat.86 In China “meat, must, and spirits were forbidden even in the last month of the deepest mourning, when other sorts of food had long been allowed already.”87