IDEAS OF THE SOUL 35 



the dead man on his journey to the other world. 

 This interpretation is borne out by the fact that a 

 live fowl is usually tied to one of these wooden 

 figures. The coffin is then conveyed out of the 

 house by lowering it to the ground with rattans, 

 either through the floor, planks being taken up for 

 the purpose, or under the eaves at the side of the 

 gallery. In this way they avoid carrying it down 

 the house-ladder ; and it seems to be felt that this 

 precaution renders it more difficult for the ghost to 

 find its way back to the house.^ All this is done 

 with great deliberation, the coffin being brought by 

 easy stages to the river bank. There it is laid in 

 a large boat gaily decorated with bright-coloured 

 cloths, which is paddled down river to the grave- 

 yard, followed by the boats of the mourning friends, 

 who refrain from speaking to any persons en- 

 countered on the way. The tombs of the village 

 are on the river bank some quarter of a mile below 

 the house, generally on the opposite bank. Here 

 the final resting-place of the coffin has been pre- 

 pared by erecting a great log of timber, which is 

 large in proportion to the social standing of the 

 dead man. In the case of a chief the log is of iron- 

 wood, some three feet or more in diameter and 

 some thirty feet in length. One end of this is sunk 

 some four or five feet into the ground. The erect- 

 ing of such a massive support is a task of some 

 difficulty, achieved by first digging the pit at the 

 foot of the log and then hauling up the other end 

 with a rough windlass. The upper end, which is 

 always the root-end of the log, is cut in the form of 

 a deep cleft, just wide enough to receive the coffin. 

 Above the cleft a large slab of hardwood forms a 



^ Among some of the peoples it is customary to beat a big gong while this 

 operation is in progress, or, in the case of a woman, a drum, in order to 

 announce to the inhabitants of the other world the coming of the recently 

 deceased. The beating of gongs is in general use for signalling from house to 

 house. 



