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

DEATH AND DISPOSAL OF THE DEAD 575
LARAVAT
customs of Laravat are in general similar to those
‘but certain differences must be noticed. In the
place, although here as in Lambumbu the skulls of the dead
preserved, they are not kept in l.ittle stone-built chambers
the sacred place (wut maul) of the clan. The position is indeed
for it is the skulls of ordinary men which are placed
use, while those oi sorcerers, wind-makers, and of
such men, together with the bones, are taken to the not
the place whither in life each had gone to perform his
and there they are left enclosed in a small stone chamber
to those made for the skulls of most men in Lambumbu.
the ritual connected with the burial of the body, too, there
what may be regarded as minor differences, as, for instance,
normally there are iour instead of two grave diggers: one
cover the head, one to cover the chest, one to cover the belly,
and the fourth to cover the legs and feet. Perhaps the most
(striking of these differences is found in the ceremony which is
performed on the ninth day after death. Instead of the rite of
launclting the coc0—nut which is “ all same â€ù the soul of the
deceased, the ghost is driven away in the following manner
by the four men who buried the corpse. Before sunset on the
ninth day a circular enclosure calledirim long, made of Vnemwengk
trees, is set up to surround one or more croton bushes which
have been planted near the path which leads past the club-
house intn the villagef
If the dead man had acquired those high titles of the Nmangki
at the purchase of which the pigs killed are tied to stones, up-
right stones arc erected round the r1'en'lbought the lower titles, for which the pigs are fastened to shrubs
such as nator, cycas or Erythrina, then these are planted about
it. Beside the rim long there is set up also a tall bamboo to which
are hung roughly made models of a how, club and mat and
likewise a model of the deceased's wife. His pig's tusks are also
hung up here. All these are said to be for the use of his ghost
in the Land oi the Dead. It is not supposed that the actual model
bow, club, cte., are used, but a kind of spiritual double thereof.‘
The track leading from this enclosure to the house where the
1 er. the nindilmnnr of objects praparerl for the ghosts or the magicians
of Melpmes.
401:»: ....