AN IFUGAO BURIAL CEREMONY. 239 



About twenty of the men immediately behind the leaders advanced and 

 removed their headdresses which were then strung on two short poles, 

 cut from the hana'ti tree at the mouth of the tomb, and stood up one on 

 each side of the passage which led at a sharp angle downward into the 

 tomb. The body was then brought forward, removed from the shield, 

 and carried into the tomb. The passage was so small that those who 

 entered were forced to crawl on their hands and knees. The body was 

 not wrapped in a death blanket, but was dressed only in an ordinary 

 clout. It was placed in a sitting posture at one side of the tomb, facing 

 Lingai, and held in position by wooden stakes cut from the hana'ti tree 

 previously referred to. After everything was prepared two men again 

 walled up the mouth of the tomb. 



During all the time that the burial was taking place, and until the 

 wall was almost finished, the widow, mother, and brother of the dead man 

 stood at the beginning of the passage and cried out to him with loud 

 voices. They alternately asked him to come back, and to avenge him- 

 self. After everything was finished they quietly went home, where they 

 remained in comparative seclusion during their period of mourning 

 previously described. After the walling up of the mouth of the tomb 

 the poles containing the headdresses were laid over it, and a tukdb 

 (wooden spear) stuck in the ground at right-angles to the slope. The 

 people then quietly dispersed, and the munliimung ceremony was finished. 



THE AFTEK-BURIAL CEREMONIES. 



Although the munhimung ended with the burial of the body, the 

 after-burial ceremonies, while not so spectacular nor attended by so 

 great a number of people, were even more curious and interesting. They 

 were of two kinds very difl^erent in character, — the liu-liua (or ceremonial 

 nights of general license) held on the three nights following the mun- 

 Mmung, and the vengeance ceremonies held at sunrise on the six succes- 

 sive mornings following the burial. 



THE Ltu-LiUA. 



Before returning home, all of the men of Banauol clan who had 

 marched in the burial procession took a ceremonial bath. The period of 

 enforced continence was now at an end. That night in every village of 

 Banauol there were little ceremonial gatherings of men and women at 

 the houses of the hadaiigyan (nobility). These gatherings are called 

 liu-liua, and there are present at each from ten to forty or fifty guests. 

 The people are invited by one of the nobility, who also provides sufficient 

 hiibud (the fermented rice-drink), betel nuts, betel leaves, and tobacco to 

 last throughout the night — for the gathering does not break up until early 

 dawn. The number of men and women is usually about equally divided, 

 and all are yoimg or middle-aged, mostly coming from the nobility 



