When Nelson Mandela's long walk to freedom finally ended Sunday, it was at the end of a dirt road winding its way across a rolling green hill on his family farm in Qunu -- "that village," Mandela wrote, "where I spent some of the happiest years of my boyhood." About 450 guests, including family, friends, traditional tribal leaders and a select group of figures from politics, business and philanthropy, watched as South Africa's first black President was buried in bright sunshine next to three of his children, with a clear view of what Mandela described as "the open spaces, the simple beauties of nature, the clean line of the horizon." A state funeral, the strong military theme also served as a reminder of Mandela's revolutionary past. His coffin was carried to the graveside by a gun carriage. An eight-gun artillery squad fired a 21-gun salute. Soldiers, sailors, airmen and a military brass band formed a guard of honor, a bugler blew the last post, then the reveille. Overhead three military helicopters flew past flying the national flag, and six air-force jets performed a maneuver known as the missing-man formation -- in which a single plane breaks away and shoots into the sky. "Beyond the hurting there is heaven," said Bishop Don Dabula, "beyond the fighting there is peace." Earlier 4,500 guests from across South Africa and the world attended a mass funeral service in a giant domed tent erected nearby. Mandela's long struggle against oppression -- his own, his people's and finally, after he stepped down as President in 1999 at age 81, on behalf of the destitute of the world -- was in search not only of freedom, peace and justice, but also of dignity, and it was that last quality that the service most reflected. Mandela's body was set in front of his mourners on a simple stand placed on a giant stitched black-and-white Nguni cattle hide, the most prized of Africa's native breeds. Above the coffin, speakers delivered eulogies against of backdrop of 95 candles -- one
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