FUNERAL CUSTOMS i39 



strict and heavy fines are imposed on people at fault, 

 but divorces may be had provided payment is made, 

 and a widow may remarry if she desires to do so. 



When a person dies there is much waiHng, and if the 

 deceased is a father or mother people of the same house 

 do not sleep for three days. The corpse remains in the 

 house three days, during which time a root called javau 

 is eaten instead of rice, babi and bananas being also per- 

 missible. The body is washed and wrapped in white 

 cotton cloth, bought from Malay traders, and placed in 

 a coffin made of iron-wood. As the coffin must not be 

 carried through the door, the house wall is broken open 

 for it to pass on its way to a cemetery in the utan. Some- 

 times as soon as one year afterward, but usually much 

 later, the coffin is opened, the bones are cleaned with 

 water and soap and placed in a new box of the same 

 material or in a gutshi, an earthen jar bought from the 

 Chinese. The box or jar is then deposited in a sub- 

 terranean chamber made of iron-wood, called kobur by 

 both Malays and Murungs, where in addition are left 

 the personal effects of the deceased, — clothing, beads, and 

 other ornaments, — and, if a man, also his sumpitan, 

 parang, axe, etc. This disposition of the bones is ac- 

 companied by a very elaborate feast, generally called 

 tiwah, to the preparation of which much time is devoted. 



According to a conception which is more or less gen- 

 eral among the Dayaks, conditions surrounding the 

 final home of the departed soul are on the whole similar 

 to those existing here, but before the tiwah feast has 

 been observed the soul is compelled to roam about in the 



