330 
The Part Played bv the Piai. 
in, a\ hile the portion that he had seized in his hand and still retained, he 
slung out of the door. During this ceremony the relatives hud retired 
to a distance, to return now with all sorts of trifles, e.g., little hits of bone, 
fruit, bread, which they threw upon the corpse, whereupon the latter 
itself w as o\ cilaid \\ it-ii small split stems of the Euterpe | ote'ticctt, which 
were most carefully fitted one into the other. This being completed, the 
I iai again stepped forward with a bundle of hair in his hand, bent down 
into the grave, removed from the corpse’s head so many of the laths as 
would allow of the whole face being seen, spat on it, stuffed the hair into 
the ears and mouth, continuing to spit all the while, and, after addressing 
it in an abrupt and harsh tone, finally withdrew. The laths were now 
again carefully replaced and covered with palm-fronds. In the mean- 
while several of the women wailing all the way, betook themselves to the 
neighbouring stream where they drew water which, on their return, they 
handed to the deceased’s widower and sister, who, pouring it over the soil 
that had been removed, mixed it to the accompaniment of loud expressions 
of grief: they heaped it over the palm-fronds to the depth of about a foot, 
so as to prevent the ants disturbing the repose of the dead. The widower 
then laid several of the deceased’s belongings on the top of this compact 
mass and filled in the grave completely. My ears were now at least freed 
from the terrible uproar, for the mourners all of a sudden stopped their 
howling and left the house, which the occupants cleared with the utmost 
care, at the same time bringing back the things that had been thrown out- 
side. But before this, they had carefully searched for the rest of the 
deceased’s property which now, together with her hammock, were burnt 
outside the building: the widower next scattered the resulting ashes 
around the house, and lighted on top of the grave a fire which he kept 
up for some hours, but the wood remaining unburnt, as well as the 
spent ashes, were left lying on the mound. The burial ceremony ended 
with that — only the deceased’s sister, who occupied the same house con- 
tinued to give expression to her grief and croon her lament for another 
three weeks, both by day, especially on her return from the provision 
field, as also at midnight, fortunately, however, bv herself alone. 
During the period of mourning she had to discard her strings of beads 
as well as every other ornament. This mourning, if not to the same 
degree, is sacredly observed by all the tribes. The Macusis, as I have 
just mentioned, lay aside all decoration, paint themselves plentifully 
with arnatto, and cut off their long hair; the cheerful expression does 
not return to the now solemn countenance until it has grown again to a; 
fixed length. The nearest relatives on the following morning had 
painted themselves from top to foe with arnatto, the relatives of the 
second degree onlv the feet. Tegs and arms, those still more distant only 
the hands and feet. The house in which the deceased lies, if not aban- 
doned bv the occupants immediately after the interment, is certain to 
be deserted soon after. • 
911. In spite of the Piai’s methods not having proved successful, I 
saw that his useless trouble had been richly recompensed by the widower 
with such articles as he had recently earned at Pirara only by bitter 
sweat in transporting our luggage. The word Piai is one of those few 
