304 CUSTOMS OF THE KAR NICOBARESE 



with bunches of "devil-exorcising" leaves about his bed. After 

 the end has come, all friends bring a piece of cotton, in which 

 the corpse is swathed subsequent to being washed in coconut 

 water. It is then lifted by two men and, while kept in an 

 upright position, lowered down the ladder and delivered to a 

 number of friends waiting below, who try to prevent its burial. 

 These, with the intention of returning it to the house occupied 

 in life, attempt to bear it towards the village, but the move- 

 ment is opposed by the rest of the community, who are in the 

 majorit)\ Much struggling takes place about the corpse, and it 

 is very roughly handled, but at length it is forced towards the 

 burial-ground and flung violently into the grave. Sucking pigs 

 and fowls are then killed, and after blood from them is sprinkled 

 over the body, are placed beneath the arms and legs.* The 

 grave is then filled up, and on the third day is decorated, and 

 marked by three bamboos, to which young coconuts are fastened 

 for the purpose of engrossing the attention of the ghost. The 

 house of mourning is also covered with young coco-palm leaves 

 and sprinkled with sacrificial pigs' blood. 



After the death of a person, houses, canoes, and the ground 

 about the village are covered with palm leaves to prevent the 

 ghost from entering. 



Theoretically, all the possessions of the deceased are destroyed,! 

 but the practice is now confined to personal property, as spoons, 

 ddos, clothes. Some of his pigs are killed, a few coco palms cut 

 down, and on rare occasions his house is burnt, or unroofed and 

 left deserted. What remains goes to the children. 



* The reason for these proceedings given to Captain Gardner by the natives 

 in 185 1 was, "because they do thus in England," for so several captains had 

 told them ! 



t "Amongst the Arafuras (Aru Islands) the treatment of their dead betrays 

 in the greatest degree their uncivilised condition, and the uncertainty which 

 exists among them as to their futLue state. When a man dies all his relations 

 assemble and destroy all the goods he may have collected during his life, even 

 the gongs are broken to pieces and thrown away. In their villages I met with 

 several heaps of porcelain plates and basins, the property of deceased indi- 

 viduals, the survivors entertaining an idea that they have no right to make use 

 of them."— Kolff's Voyage of the Dotirga, p. 166. 



