XXVi MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES, 
yet ready (or, as in one case that I witnessed, not yet attempted), 
the body is placet! in a leaning position against a tree, and the work 
is begun by one or two of the very few present. In the instance re¬ 
ferred to, a mother had suddenly died in the brief absence of her 
son, and something of sympathy was felt for him as he sat awaiting 
the completion of the work : but it would seem that timidity amid 
the associations of “ God’s Acre” compels the Dayak to utter jests 
from the very grave that he is preparing for a friend. The slow 
process was, to open a space of 2 by 2|- feet at either end of the in¬ 
tended grave, leaving an earth-partition between those openings of 
perhaps 15 inches’ breadth : of course, operations soon became dif¬ 
ficult for the use of a spade at either end, but no movement was 
made for the destruction of the wall between. As I was present 
with a view to conducting a Christian service, and the weather of 
noon was very oppressive, I hazarded a personal removal of the par¬ 
tition, in order that a depth of four feet might be reached without 
a waste of hours; for what reason soever it was allowed to remain, 
I was happy to find that no repugnance seemed to be felt, and I 
may add that subsequent commendation of the act of assistance (to 
villagers at a distance) would indicate that no special sacredness at¬ 
taches to the old custom. On the completion of a grave such as 
would be formed for a European, however, the work is yet unfinished. 
A lateral excavation is now made, from the bottom, of such depth 
in the bank that the body may be quite admitted, and be without 
the line of the falling earth at the re-filling of the grave. At this 
point the chief mourner in the case before us commenced a piercing 
howl of invocation (I say it in all kindness) but soon refrained as 
he was aware that prayer was to be * offered: the memory of Ids 
voice, as he sat in the grave looking for the last time on earth upon 
the rigid features of her who gave him birth, is vivid as I write. A 
fence of short stakes was then made before the inner excavation—a 
blanket of bark extended from the foot of it to the lip of the larger 
grave, and the earth was again thrown in and hammered to a smooth 
hard, and regular oblong form, a few inches above the surrounding 
surface. Then followed a ceremony accompanied with some hesitant 
