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

DEATH AND DISPOSAL OF THE DEAD 565
in hurying the body of a dead man the method
by the people of Lambumbu is practically the same for
the ‘complexity of the ritual depends upon the social status
the deceased.
When death is seen to be approaching hy the appearance
eyes, the dying man is placed in a sitting position and
by his wife or by his son, should the latter be grown
As far as he is able he gives his last instructions about the
mun of his pigs, the care of his children, and other such
matters. His pigs must in any case be all given away, but he
speciï¬Åes which animal is to go to this man, and which to that;
how many are to be delivered to his maternal uncle ; and what
men are under obligations to him and are therefore to receive
of small value. As soon as death has taken place the son
pr brother of the deceased tells a man to go to the gongs and
beat out the rhythm naai temu/at (" the Beat of Peace "), and
forthwith the wailing hegins, men and women crowding into
the house. Should the dead man have been one of high rank,
then his daughters- and sisters-in-law (those standing to him
in the relationship of nrvinzla) may not enter through the fence
(Mar) which surrounds the house, but must wail outside in the
company of such other female relatives who have not purchased
the right to pass into the enclosure. The rhythm naai temwat
is beaten continuously until sundown, when it changes to the
funeral beat atumbu lm naai, which consists of a number of
single dispersed strokes on each of the gongs in turn, beginning
with the largest of them. This rhythm, alternating with another
called ratugh naai ti, is kept up throughout the night. It the
deceased were a. man of very great importance, men come towards
evening from all the neighbouring villages to hewail him. In
the very early morning, before sunrise, the son or brother oi
the dead man presents bone arrow-heads, fowls' feathers, men's
girdles, or head-mats to these moumers, and at daybreak they
return to their houses to fetch pigs.
I While the visiting mourners are away, the son of the deceased
prepares the body for burial. Sometimes, however, he is so
overcome ‘with grief that other men of his clan do this for him.
The face and body are washed in c0co—nut milk, and a new penis
sheath is put on of the kind which is Worn as a mark of high
rank. The corpse is also decorated with shell armlets, a girdle,