WAILING AT DEATH 137 



When a death occurs the people in the hut at once 

 begin to wail, then the people in the neighbouring huts 

 join in and soon the whole village is wailing. It is a 

 very pecuUar and very striking chorus. Each indi- 

 vidual wails on one note, and as there are perhaps five 

 notes ranging from a very high pitch to a deep 

 murmured bass being sung at once, the effect is most 

 mournful. The occasional beat of a drum adds not a 

 little to the general effect of lamentation. It must 

 be admitted, however, that the wailing is not always 

 a musical performance. Sometimes the mourning man 

 behaves in the way that a child does when it is described 

 as " roaring " ; he puckers up his face in the most 

 extraordinary contortions, " roars " at the top of his 

 voice with occasional heart-breaking sobs, while the 

 tears course down his face, and the complete picture 

 is ludicrous in the extreme. 



The disposal of the dead nearly always takes place 

 just before dawn, but the method of it is not always 

 the same. The most common practice is to bury the 

 body in a shallow grave dug in the nearest convenient 

 spot, sometimes within a few yards of the huts. The 

 body is wrapped in mats and laid flat in the grave, 

 which is then filled up, and its place is perhaps marked 

 by a stick, but in a day or two it is forgotten and people 

 trample on it without heed. 



We observed one instance of a more elaborate kind 

 of burial. The corpse, wrapped in leaves and mats, 

 was taken out into the jungle and placed on a platform 

 about four feet high, which had been put up for the 

 purpose. After placing the body on the platform the 



