12 



Gunnar Landt.man. 



Burial platform. 



Observances of Individual 

 Life. Before the birth of a child 

 tlie mother is isolated from other 

 people. In Kiwai she awaits her 

 delivery within an enclosure of 

 mats in the communal house, while 

 in Mawata a birth may not take 

 place within a dwelling house, a 

 little temporary hut being erected 

 for the wonian. A woman in 

 childbed is regarded as unclean. 



Every noteworthy occasion 

 is celebrated with a feast or dance. 

 The boys especially, and also the 



girls, undergo a long series of rites on attaining the age of puberty. 



Burial. In former times the dead were placed on a platform, and there the 



body moulded away, until only the bones were left. The bones were then washed and 



buried in a garden; in some cases the relatives kept the skull with them for a time. 



Nowadays the dead are buried in the ground, and on the grave a little hut is erected 



for the departed person. The spirits go to Adiri, the land of the dead, which is 



situated far in the west where the sun and moon go down. Immediately after a death 



a great wailing takes place in the village. 



Dances and Som/s. In addi- 

 tion to the great cérémonies, which 



are described in connection with 



some of the tales, there is a large 



number of smaller feasts and dances. 



Some take place in the open air, 



others in „the men's house". Most 



of the former dances are mimetic; 



the dancers Imitate actions from 



real life, although not by merely 



copying them but in a symbolized 



and conventionalized way. The 



other dances, such as the madia 



and mddo, which take place in- Hut erected on a grave. A fire is lighted in the left corner. 



In the hut hängs a basket indicating that ä baby also has been 

 doors, comprise a kind of cere- buried here. Food is hung up on a post in the right corner. 



Tom. XLVIl 



