THE GREAT NORTH-EAST. 
189 
good many times before the procession reaches it. And 
one man following the corpse carries on his head an 
earthen dish filled with burning cow-dung, and when it 
is deposited in the grave the dish containing the burn¬ 
ing cow-dung is placed at the headstone. They say 
that the reason of this is that the dead person may be 
able to get fire should he chance to be cold. 
“ When the corpse has been placed in the grave, a 
man knocks at the door of the tomb, or on the stone 
covering it should there be no door, and calls out: 
‘ 0 thou, such an one, whoever it is that has bewitched 
you, let him not hide, let him not be concealed, but 
break him upon the rock, that the children may see it, 
that the women may see it; 5 and all there also join in 
this adjuration. And after that the earth is filled up 
against the door of the grave. 
“ And when the relatives and friends have returned 
home, and see the widow sitting in her grand clothing 
and ornaments, they rush upon her, tearing her dress, 
and violently pulling off all her adornments, so as to 
hurt her, and say at the same time: ‘This is the cause 
of our not having our own’ (meaning, that she has 
caused the death of their relative); for they believe that 
the luck of the wife is stronger than that of her hus¬ 
band, and so has caused his death. And so when all 
her ornaments have been stripped off, they give her a 
coarse rofia larnba , and a spoon with a broken handle, 
and a round dish with the foot (or stand) broken off, 
and her hair is dishevelled, and she is covered up with 
a coarse mat; and there, under it, she remains all day 
long, and can only leave it at night; and whoever goes 
into the house, the widow may not speak to them. This 
broken dish and spoon, already mentioned, is what she 
