BURIAL AND WITCHCRAFT 
no token of sorrow. Just as the procession started 
the women set up a tremendous wailing, which was 
continued all the way to the grave. On reaching the 
burial-place, which was some seven minutes’ walk 
from the village, the corpse was set down, and the 
mother, seating herself at its head, encircled it with 
her arms, the hands being clasped below the chin, 
and began with shrill cries to try to call her son 
back to life. For twenty minutes, while the shallow 
grave was being dug, this ceremony proceeded, while 
the rest of the mourners sat around. ‘The corpse 
was then lifted into the grave without much rever- 
ence and was covered up, the mourners waiting until 
this was done, whereupon they walked away and, 
as far as they were concerned, the mourning was 
over, and far from being a cause of sorrow, it had 
become merely an interesting topic of conversation. 
The chief mourner, however, if a woman, keeps the 
house, and sees no one after the funeral for a space 
that may extend to three weeks. It is indeed very 
difficult to persuade a mourner to leave the house. 
Another method of disposal of the dead is tree- 
burial. A light framework of bamboo or sticks is 
laid in the fork of a tree. On this the corpse, 
wrapped in bark, is exposed. When nature has 
done its work on the remains, the bones are after- 
wards distributed among the friends of the deceased. 
They do not believe in a natural death, and attri- 
bute every decease to poison in a vague and general 
sort of way. Belief in another world they have 
none, and the most elementary ideas of religion do 
not seem to exist. There is not even any definite 
aa2 
