DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49270#0058
36
J. Roscoe
woman is usually the only person who remains to mourn and fulfil the duties of caring for
the grave. She allows her hair to grow long and never cuts her nails until her brother
declares the mourning is ended. She seldom goes through the formal daily mourning at
the grave, but she does not join in any festivities until the mourning ends. Should the
husband leave the place, the grave is neglected unless the brother pays occasional visits,
perhaps because some medicine man attributes sickness among his children to the sister’s
ghost.
The king’s mother and princesses are treated as men and have their graves in the
country reserved for the burial of kings.
It often happens that a member of a clan dies at a distance from the burial ground,
but the other members willingly carry the body to the place of burial.
In no instance may two bodies be laid in the same grave. Even when a woman dies
in a pregnant condition the foetus is removed and buried apart from the mother. In
the burial ground ample room is left round the grave to keep a clear space free from growth
of vegetation. One or more widows are chosen to take care of the grave, one (at least)
of them being the mother of children by the deceased. This woman lives near the grave
and is given sufficient land for growing food to support herself. Her duties are to attend
to the grave, to keep the mound from crumbling away, or, should it be a thatched grave,
to keep the thatch in good condition, and to keep the space round the grave free from
weeds or other growths. If there is a shrine, she carpets the interior with sweet-scented
lemon grass, keeps a small vessel of wine in it, and ties offerings of clothing to the rafters
inside the shrine.
Graves are dug by male members of the clan who are deputed for this duty while the
body is undergoing the funeral preparations. The only implements used in the excava-
tion are a hoe and a basket made from plantain fiber, into which the earth is scraped with
the hoe and then lifted from the grave. Graves are pits dug some seven feet long by four
feet wide and from five to six feet deep. When the grave is dug it is lined with bark
cloth; a comfortable bed is made at the bottom also with bark cloth from the offerings
of relatives, and the body is then laid upon it; numbers of bark cloths are thrown into the
grave by the mourners and friends who accompany the procession, and are arranged by
men who stand in the grave. These bark cloths are often so numerous as to leave little
room for the earth, which is now trodden down and a mound built over the grave. It is
customary for a grandson to step into the grave after the body is laid in it, cut with a knife
a piece of the bark cloth which covers the face of the dead man, and then throw the knife
to one of the widows standing near who thereupon becomes his wife and ceases to mourn.
The two methods of finishing the exterior of graves are that of raising a mound and that
of thatching. The mound, used chiefly by the common people, is of earth raised two feet
J. Roscoe
woman is usually the only person who remains to mourn and fulfil the duties of caring for
the grave. She allows her hair to grow long and never cuts her nails until her brother
declares the mourning is ended. She seldom goes through the formal daily mourning at
the grave, but she does not join in any festivities until the mourning ends. Should the
husband leave the place, the grave is neglected unless the brother pays occasional visits,
perhaps because some medicine man attributes sickness among his children to the sister’s
ghost.
The king’s mother and princesses are treated as men and have their graves in the
country reserved for the burial of kings.
It often happens that a member of a clan dies at a distance from the burial ground,
but the other members willingly carry the body to the place of burial.
In no instance may two bodies be laid in the same grave. Even when a woman dies
in a pregnant condition the foetus is removed and buried apart from the mother. In
the burial ground ample room is left round the grave to keep a clear space free from growth
of vegetation. One or more widows are chosen to take care of the grave, one (at least)
of them being the mother of children by the deceased. This woman lives near the grave
and is given sufficient land for growing food to support herself. Her duties are to attend
to the grave, to keep the mound from crumbling away, or, should it be a thatched grave,
to keep the thatch in good condition, and to keep the space round the grave free from
weeds or other growths. If there is a shrine, she carpets the interior with sweet-scented
lemon grass, keeps a small vessel of wine in it, and ties offerings of clothing to the rafters
inside the shrine.
Graves are dug by male members of the clan who are deputed for this duty while the
body is undergoing the funeral preparations. The only implements used in the excava-
tion are a hoe and a basket made from plantain fiber, into which the earth is scraped with
the hoe and then lifted from the grave. Graves are pits dug some seven feet long by four
feet wide and from five to six feet deep. When the grave is dug it is lined with bark
cloth; a comfortable bed is made at the bottom also with bark cloth from the offerings
of relatives, and the body is then laid upon it; numbers of bark cloths are thrown into the
grave by the mourners and friends who accompany the procession, and are arranged by
men who stand in the grave. These bark cloths are often so numerous as to leave little
room for the earth, which is now trodden down and a mound built over the grave. It is
customary for a grandson to step into the grave after the body is laid in it, cut with a knife
a piece of the bark cloth which covers the face of the dead man, and then throw the knife
to one of the widows standing near who thereupon becomes his wife and ceases to mourn.
The two methods of finishing the exterior of graves are that of raising a mound and that
of thatching. The mound, used chiefly by the common people, is of earth raised two feet