FUNERAL CEREMONIES 79 



At the end of the gallery stood the large, newly 

 made casket, which was open, the corpse covered with 

 cloth resting inside. It was an oblong, heavy box sup- 

 posed to represent a rhinoceros, though nothing positively 

 indicated this except the large head of this animal at one 

 end, which, though rudely made, was cut with considera- 

 ble artistic skill. The family sat around the casket, one 

 man smoking tobacco, the women wailing and occasionally 

 lifting the cover to look at the face of the corpse. One 

 babi (pig) that had belonged to the deceased had been 

 killed and was served with rice. In the afternoon, hav- 

 ing partaken of food, a number of men carried the heavy 

 burden on their shoulders down to the river, preceded by 

 two women belonging to the family. It was placed on 

 two prahus, which were lashed together, and then taken 

 down the river to be buried. After the death of a relative 

 women mourners cut off about two centimetres from the 

 end of the hair; the men cut an equal portion from the 

 front. 



Later in the afternoon the gong announced another 

 death, that of a child. On this account some sixty Malays 

 who were camped here, bound for the utan higher up the 

 river, in search of rubber and damar, delayed their 

 departure as did some Kenyahs who were on their way to 

 Apo Kayan, and the people of the kampong did not go 

 to their ladangs. The following day the sound of the 

 gong was again heard, but this time it was occasioned by 

 the fact that an adept had taken augurs from the flight 

 of the red hawk, and to him it was given that illness would 

 cease. 



