[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]

DEATH AND DISPOSAL OF THE DEAD 571
wulmm mmbweleh gumalili guwelem an gmm teli, wumm baasï¬Ågh "
(" Go thou ! 1 . . . . â€ù), and launches the coco-nut into the sea.
She watches its course ; if it goes out to sea, all is propitious,
but should it return again to ‘the shore then another man
belonging to the village or district of the deceased will die shortly.
This launching of the coco-nut and divination is only done when
the dead man was of high rank.
- Until the twentieth day after the death all the female moumers
who have the right to enter into the deceased’s house remain
within it and plait mats and men’s girdles. During this period
of seclusion the men bring them food. At the end of this time
they all leave the hut and go down to the sea to bathe. Having
done this they return once more to the house for another period
of ten days, during which they make two mats called netiuilang,
resembling sleeping mats. On the thirtieth day, when these are
ready, all tho men of the village, with the exception of those
two who buried the corpse, go down and bathe in the sea. If the
deceased were of high social status, they begin on their return
to build two structures, known as naaimbur, one near the dancing
ground, the other on the beach at the nearest point to the village.
They are made of reeds and are roughly cylindrical in shape,
about 2 fcct in diameter and from 8 to IO feet high. On them
are hung model bows, clubs, and other tools and weapons, and
they are decorated with various objects representing or
symbolizing the rank and ceremonial paraphernalia of the dead
man's Nimangki status. Thus a certain mat is a sign that he
had bought the privilege of wearing a head-dress called mum
associated with the high title Rhus Naval. Similarly, croton,
cordyline, cycas, and Erythrina may be seen on these structures.
and pigs’ tusks are fastened to stakes of nalor wood, one of which
is set beside each of the two nazzimlmr. From the naaimbur
on the beach there stretch in opposite directions, along the
sea-shore, long lines of upright monoliths, the symbol of high
rank and ehieftainship. The function of these structures is
to attract the ghost and lure him into haunting them rather
than molesting the village. The one by the sea is almost certainly
connected with the idea of the soul going out to sea on the tenth
day alter death,
In the evening, when the naaimbur have been completed,
‘ The remainder 0! the sentence is unlortunately untranslated‘-—-C. H. W.