54 



SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS 



VOL. 123 



old man heal) dwelling. At that time your 

 grandmother and grandfather will also go to 

 Ngeo Ga's dwelling. Then they will also go 

 before you to Ga Ye K'o's dwelling. When 

 you go, the rooster will go before you. The 

 bamboo divining roots will interpret your 

 words. When your rooster crows and the 

 rooster of your grandn:iother and your grand- 

 father reply, those are your grandmother 

 and grandfather. If your rooster crows and 

 no rooster answers, those are not your grand- 

 parents (ancestors). 



C. "I will lead you to your grandparents' 

 dwelling. Your grandparents have a well. 

 When you arrive there, the water is fragrant. 

 You must drink three handfuls, for at that 

 time (when they died) your grandmother 

 and your grandfather also drank this water. 



D. "Now I will lead you to Ntzi's land in 

 heaven to the dancing altar. You must go 

 past in front of Zwang Zwei's (3waO 5wei) 

 face. By the side of the road he opens his 

 mouth wide. There is also Tso Zwei (tso* 

 3wei) ^ who is lying beside the road. These 

 two want to block the road. At that time you 

 can take a handful of fire hemp and tear it to 

 pieces and cover the dragon's lips. You also 

 take some large hemp and cover up the 

 tiger's mouth, and after that you can go by 

 (unharmed) . 



E. "Now I will escort you up to the sky 

 (paradise). When you have gone up the 

 ladder to the sky, ascend to the first palace, 

 the second palace, the third palace, the fourth 

 palace, the fifth palace, the sixth palace, the 

 seventh palace, the eighth palace, the ninth 

 palace, the tenth palace, the eleventh palace, 

 and the twelfth palace. When you have 

 reached the twelfth pavilion, you will have 

 reached the house in the sky (heaven). 



F. "Now I will lead you to see the flower 

 altar. This flower altar has many people 

 (worshipers). There is a drum altar which 

 is also wonderful. Ah, look. On this road 

 there are very many straw-sandal insects. 

 These straw-sandal insects are very numerous 

 on this road. Therefore you quickly make 

 bamboo into sandals and wear them. 



'Tou also take shoes made of big hemp 

 and put them on, then you go along stepping 

 on the insects, and step on them as you go 

 until you have trodden them to death. 



G. "I will lead you up onto Ntzi's heaven. 

 You can look at the flowery altar, and you can 

 turn around and listen to the cuckoo calling. 

 You also turn around and listen to the cicada 



s Zwang Zwei means demon stone, or stone 

 demon, and Tso Zwei means stone tiger. 



singing. When you hear the cuckoo, that is 

 the sound of your descendants below playing 

 the liu sheng and beating the drums. There 

 is also the cicada singing, and that is the 

 weeping of your descendants. 



H. "Now I am going to lead you to finish 

 dancing at the flowery altar, and I will also 

 lead you so that you can be born again (as 

 a man) on earth. We will go down the sky 

 ladder. We will descend one pavilion, two 

 pavilions, three pavilions, four pavilions, five 

 pavilions, six pavilions, seven pavilions, eight 

 pavilions, nine pavilions, ten pavilions, eleven 

 pavilions, twelve pavilions. When we have 

 gone past the twelfth pavilion, then we will 

 have arrived on earth. Then you will escape 

 from the womb and turn around on the wheel 

 of life.» 



I. "Now I will lead you to the grave. You 

 will have a place with your father and your 

 father-in-law. That is the grave hill. You 

 can live with them.^° 



J. "Your parents-in-law will ask, 'Who 

 brought you here?' You must not say that 

 I brought you here. You may say that you 

 came alone. 



K. "I will take you to the grave to be 

 buried peacefully (in peace). You wear bam- 

 boo or hemp shoes. I will wear shoes made of 

 vines (wicker). I will escort you to your 

 grave, and you must stay there forever (all 

 your life). You must send me back to life.^^ 

 You wear shoes made of great hemp. I will 

 wear shoes made of the bark of the keo tree.^^ 

 I will escort you into the tomb. You must 

 escort me back to my home." 



At this time the rooster is choked to death, 

 and then a sharpened bamboo stick is stuck 

 through the rooster, and the stick with the 

 rooster on it is stuck up in the ground or 

 leaned against the coffin. Divining is done by 

 means of two halves of a joint of bamboo on 

 which there have been leaves. 



After a while an animal is sacrified, and 

 the ceremony proceeds as described in the 

 following (Nos. 658-661). 



Sacrificing an Animal during the Funeral 

 Ceremonies (658) 



The priest calls the dead person three times 



^ This disposes of one of a person's three souls. 

 J-O This disposes of a soul in the grave. 



11 The idea is diat the soul of the priest escorts 

 the soul of the dead person, and should be sent 

 back and not detained by the soul of the dead 

 person. If the soul of the priest should not return 

 to life, the priest would die. 



12 The keo tree is wrongly called a dogwood 

 tree by Westerners. 



