CHAPTER XVI 
BURIAL, WITCHCRAFT, AND OTHER THEMES 
THE Papuans are not a long-lived race. The mountain 
people die off about forty: at Googooli, high up on 
the mountains, we saw one very old man, who may 
have been sixty years of age—the only example of 
longevity that we came across. He was a _ very 
pathetic spectacle: his features were almost gone, the 
skin was terribly shrivelled, and the eyes sunken. 
He was bent almost double, and had a long white 
beard. His fellow-tribesmen regarded him as a great 
curiosity, snd brought him to see us. Despite the 
decrepitrde of his body, however, there was no 
trace of senility: his senses were unimpaired; and 
the poor old creature showed great gratitude for a 
eift of tobacco. 
Of the mountain people’s burial customs I have 
no precise knowledge, but at Hanuabada we were 
able to observe a coast funeral. The dead body was 
wrapped in a net and lashed to a pole, which was 
borne by two bearers. To the funeral, which was 
celebrated the morning after death, the whole village 
turned out, and followed the corpse without any 
regard to precedence, except that the chief mourner 
—in this case, the mother—- walked immediately 
behind the bier. The chief mourner is invariably 
blacked all over with charcoal, but the others wear 
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