POPULATION 
89 
songs; in the next house the relations were lamenting 
and the mourning-women were consoling them. Two 
drummers and two fiddlers paraded round the two 
houses with music, followed by persons of both sexes. 
The mourners received meat, rice and rum throughout 
the day in the courtyard. An ox was slain, and first 
they boiled the entrails and then the flesh, hide and all; 
the four feet were cut off and placed on a sand-heap. 
The burial took place early in the morning. The body 
was deposited in the hollow trunk of a tree some six 
miles distant. A small flag indicated the place; near 
this an offering was placed, consisting of a bottle and a 
plate of rice. In the north of the island the bodies are 
said to be subjected to a kind of mummification before 
burial. As I have been informed, it is customary among 
the Sakalava, but only in the case of persons of high 
rank, not to place the body in the coffin until after some 
weeks. Until mummification has taken place, they 
throng round the body every day, and no one dares 
utter a single complaint about the bad smell. 
