FUNERAL OBSEQUIES 17 



the women of the house raise the death-cry ; other professional 

 women are called to take up the cry when the relations are 

 exhausted. Coffin-makers are sent for, and do the needful in 

 the street opposite the house. All those who come to offer 

 condolences, contribute to the expenses of the cremation. 



After the body has been washed, and, in the case of a girl, 

 her face decorated also, a coin is placed in the mouth. It is 

 then wrapped in a clean white cloth and laid on an open bier 

 in the principal room of the house and left there till the 

 coffin is ready, which is fully two days. When the procession 

 starts for the last obsequies, alms for the phoongies and poor 

 are carried in front ; then come nuns carrying pickled tea, 

 pan, and betel ; then the priests, followed by their pupils 

 walking two and two. A band of music precedes the coffin 

 borne by the friends of the deceased, and immediately behind 

 are the relations dressed in white, which is a sign of mourning 

 amongst Buddhists. On the arrival of the coffin at the 

 cemetery it is placed near the funeral pyre with the priests 

 sitting at its head, and the mourners in front of them ; 

 the priests then recite the prayers for the dead; the chief 

 mourner pours out water from a cup on to the cloth attached 

 to the coffin, or, in its absence, on the ground, pronouncing 

 at the same time after the chief priest, " Let the deceased and 

 all present partake of the merits of the ceremonies now per- 

 forming." The assembly reply, " We will." They then retire 

 to a distance, the coffin is placed on the funeral pyre by those 

 whose office it is to set fire to it. Before leaving the ceme- 

 tery, the alms are distributed to the priests and to the poor, 

 and the pickled tea and pan and betel are partaken of by 

 all present. Three days afterwards the ashes are collected, 

 placed in an urn, and buried. 



When a high priest dies, he is embalmed and kept for a 

 year, and then burnt with much tamasha, as the Indians 

 would say. The whole population of the neighbouring vil- 

 lages turns out ; many dummy coffins are made, besides the 

 one containing the defunct, and neatly arranged in a cluster, 

 the one containing the remains of the priest in the centre, 

 with a funeral pyre arranged underneath, in which also there 

 is generally some gunpowder ; to this ropes are attached, and 



