692 



exactly like that, except that its roof was made of Tsindic 

 (plaited coconut leaves), and the upper ridge of the roof was 

 straight and not curved, just as the horizontal ridge line of 

 the Mailu house is straight and not concave, as it is in the 

 Massim house. Sometimes a small fence (Gcina) only was 

 made over the grave. If the grave had been dug under the 

 man's house the place was marked by two pieces of wood. 



The mode of burial was to a large extent determined by 

 the man's social position, the important men only being 

 interred under their houses ; but it was also influenced by the 

 season. As the deep mourners had to keep watch near the 

 man's grave (see below), it was essential to secure them a 

 certain minimum of comfort. Thus, in the very hot and dry 

 season, at the end of Lioro and beginning of the small .4 rciray 

 when the heat is at its greatest and the rain has not yet come, 

 the body would in any case be buried among the coconuts, and 

 the small Kc'qxi hut constructed ; but if it was the wet season 

 the corpse would be placed under the house. As the mourning 

 was only very strictly kept in the case of important men, it 

 is natural that in other cases the natives should prefer to bury 

 the dead in the gardens. 



As the presence of a dead man in the village was always 

 a source of some discomfort, it was preferable, for superstitious, 

 not hygienic, reasons, to have as few burials in the village as 

 possible, and I think, though I am not quite certain on this 

 point, that the Kdjxi (small mortuary house) was made over 

 the graves of important people, and the Gdna (fence) over 

 those of all the others. Again, I was told that on the islands 

 (Mailu, IjOupom, Laruoro), which are considerably drier than 

 the mainland, the garden burial prevailed, while in the 

 villages, on the mainland opposite Mailu, such as Derehaiy 

 Woiuuoro, Kurere (which is a Mailu settlement), and in others 

 to the west, the reverse is the case. The mainland villages to 

 the east, beginning with Boreho, Ddgoho, and U nevi^ as far as 

 Geagea, also practised the forms of burial as described, though 

 without the mortuary hut, burying their dead for the most 

 part under the houses. 



They sometimes used to dispose of the bodies on platforms 

 in crevices of the rocks, in a manner that I will now describe. 

 This was the exclusive burial practice of the few Mailu villages 

 situated at the western end of Orangerie Bay, between Port 

 Glasgow and the village of Gadaisiu, which marks the boundary 

 between the Mailu and the Massim. I saw such a burial-place, 

 called Borio, where the three small villages — Oihdda, Nohd'i, 

 and Ori used to lay their dead. It is situated at the mouth 

 of a creek, quite close to the seashore, where a rock about 

 50 m. to 75 m. high rises above the sloping bank of the creek,. 



