693 



which is clothed with a thick undergrowth that shelters the 

 <jrevice. At the top of the bank, where the rocky wall rises, 

 there are several shallow, but wide, cavities, with a front of 

 about 30 m. or 50 m. In these there are several ledges and 

 niches, and, as the rock is overhanging, anything placed under 

 this shelter is protected from the weather. Here I saw several 

 small platforms of very frail construction no higher than 

 150 cm. to 200 cm., about 100 cm. long, and about 60 cm. 

 wide. On these were placed bundles of human bones, wrapped 

 partly in the ElaM, or pandanus mat, and partly in fibre 

 petticoats, and I was told that the kind of wrapping denoted the 

 difference between the sexes. The bundles were short, so that 

 if they were made whilst there was flesh on the bones the body 

 must have been wrapped in a squatting position, and this my 

 informants said was actually the case. Some of the platforms 

 were falling to pieces, and the bundles were on the ground 

 which was strewn with bones, and a score or so of skulls were 

 deposited on the ledges. Unfortunately I had only a few 

 minutes to spare, so that I could neither take a photograph 

 nor make a careful study of the place. 



It is interesting to note that this mode of burial of the 

 extreme Eastern Mailu cannot be attributed to contact meta- 

 morphosis induced by the influence of their eastern neighbours, 

 for the Massim of the eastern half of Orangerie Bay either 

 bury their dead or dispose of them in half a canoe — -the latter 

 form being apparently the exception. These bury the corpses, 

 not extended in a supine position like the Mailu, but in a 

 squatting attitude, with both hands joined over the feet, the 

 body being laid on an Elaki mat spread on the bottom of the 

 grave and covered with two other mats. Burial took place 

 under, or near, the house, a small hut being erected over the 

 grave, (i^o) jf the body was buried in a broken boat it was 

 laid supine. 



To return to the Mailu burial practices. After the body 

 has been laid in the ground, whether under the house or in 

 the garden, all the people disperse except the mourners. The 

 deep mourners — the Nandma and Docie — are bound to remain 

 by the grave for a fortnight to a month. The Mdgu ragud'i 

 do some wailing, but they move about, and can remain, or 2^0 

 and come as their grief and other necessities bid them. The 

 deep mourners, however, must never move from the place. If 

 the grave is under the house, they sit there, and at night only 

 move to the room above or to the verandah. So also, if the 

 grave is in the garden, the mourners sit there the whole day, 

 arriving at daybreak and returning to the village at sunset. 

 As previously mentioned, they sit during the first days of 



(lOO)Oomp. Seligman, op. cit., pis. Ixx. and Ixxi. 



