306 CUSTOMS OF THE KAR NICOBARESE 



Luinj-lare (renunciation of the character) had not been performed. 

 Upon the wire, thirty-two pairs of spoons and forks were placed 

 crosswise. Necklaces made of two-anna pieces (240 to each, 

 and two dollars) were attached to head and neck, and the 

 body was wrapped in forty yards of red cloth. 



The corpse was then borne in procession by twenty-four 

 men and women to the house of the relatives (contrary to 

 custom), and was then taken to the graveyard. Two very 

 large and four ordinary pigs were burnt alive as a sacrifice, 

 and seven pigs and eight chickens were buried with the body 

 after their blood had been sprinkled over the corpse. 



The following night, the ceremony of Fota Elmot (wiping 

 away tears) was performed, on which occasion fifty pigs and 

 twenty fowls were slaughtered to feed the guests, and thirty- 

 two pairs of spoons and forks, necklaces of silver coin and 

 wire, and teakwood boxes full of the dead man's property, 

 were broken up and thrown into the sea. 



Again, on the eighth day, the final mourning ceremony was 

 gone through, when, in honour of the thirteen villages of the 

 island, thirteen pairs of spoons and forks, and sundry other 

 articles, were destroyed, and the guests were entertained at a 

 feast of equal munificence to that they had shortly before taken 

 part in. 



The second case is that of a man, nearly one hundred years 

 old, who owned a third part of the village of Lapati. 



The body was neatly wrapped in cloths under a curtain in 

 the " deadhouse." A sort of open coffin, about 7 feet long and 4 

 feet wide, was made, and six thick green canes were fastened to 

 it, three to the head and three to the foot, each cane about 50 

 yards long. 



When all was ready the coffin was drawn into the " dead- 

 house " up a sloping plank, and when the corpse had been placed 

 within, two women got in and lay on either side the body, 

 embracing it with their arms. When the coffin was lowered to 

 the ground two big men also laid themselves down in it. 



The large Elpmiam was filled with a crowd of about a 



