LISU TRIBES OF THE BURMA-CHINA FRONTIER. 
261 
On the tenth, twentieth and thirtieth day both mother and child are bathed, and 
neither are allowed to leave the family home until the last bathing is complete, lest 
disease overtake them. The young mother is forbidden to taste chillies, sour bamboo 
sprouts, strong liquor or sweets during this period, and she is attended by her friends 
and allowed to take no part in the duties of the household. When the month is com- 
plete a fowl is sacrificed to the ancestral ghost and mother and child are free to enter 
the village, no offering for the purification of the woman being demanded by Ldsu 
custom. During the thirty days of confinement in the house the birth-bed 
is not moved, even the father avoiding it lest his skin be affected, and at the end of 
the period bed and bedding are either cleansed and purified or are destroyed by fire. 
Sir George Scott writes : ‘ ‘ The Ifishaws have no fixed cemeteries. The dead 
are buried in any remote place. The body is put in a 
Death and Burial Customs. ' . . . 
wooden coffin and the spirits are consulted as to the time 
for interment. Till this arrives the body is kept in an open place, closely fenced 
round by stakes. When the fixed time comes the male friends and relatives cut 
down this fence with their dahs and the coffin is then carried away to some lonely 
spot. The graves are not marked or tended in any way.” Sir George does not 
state from what part of the country this custom was taken. In speaking of the 
‘ ‘ Pai ’ ’ or White Ifissou Prince Henry writes : ‘ ‘ The instruments of the defunct are 
placed upon his tomb, with the addition of a sapeck inserted between the dead man’s 
lips, none other than the ancient provision of Charon’s obole for the ferry.” 
The wild Ifisu of the Upper Salween and their kinsfolk of the frontier mountains are 
consistent in this care for the dead. As the end draws near nine grains of unhusked 
rice and nine small pieces of silver are given with water to the dying man to swallow , 
woman receiving only seven of each. When life is extinct two of the watchers 
take the hands of the dead man and' crying to him by his spirit name they bid 
him return to his ancestors, taking care lest he stray from the path or be lured aside 
by enemies. Guns are fired to notify the village of the death, the body is washed and 
laid in the hollowed trunk of a tree or in a coffin, in which is often laid a wrap and cups 
of food and wine. Three cowries and a small lump of silver are thrown into the nearest 
torrent as an offering to the spirit of the streams, who will provide drinking water 
for the departed in his long sojourn. Should the funeral party cross a stream on their 
way to the grave, an offering is also thrown on behalf of the dead, who must pay for 
the privilege of crossing. On the day of burial it is not essential that an offering be. 
made to the nats, but a pig is always killed, and a feast prepared for those who assist 
in the ceremony , the festival of the dead being postponed until after harvest or some 
other time when food is plentiful. The priest then summons the departed spirit by 
its buried name and a pig and other offerings are presented , and are afterwards handed 
to the priest as his reward. On the way to the ancestral home there are nine hills, 
nine streams and nine roads for the spirit to traverse, and the priest warns it not to be 
misled by tracks of wild pig or other animals, at the same time crying to the ancestral 
ghosts that their child is starting to their home, bidding them watch for his ap- 
proach and receive him in the spirit land. Above the grave from the branch of an 
