The deceased was to be buried on Sunday morning and I promised to be with them at sunrise; But I overslept ( 065 ) and when I got there the assembly had already left. Since I didn't know the place of burial, I had no choice but to take one of the few who remained behind with me and hurry after him. His sleuthing ability was able to recognize the path that the assembly had taken from the track, and so we soon came to the place where the pile had been stored and where the body was to be buried. A man makes the grave using a club and a kind of wooden scale, with the former he loosens the hard earth and with the latter he throws out what has been loosened. The shape of the grave was elongated and round, wider at the bottom and a little narrower at the top. When I arrived, the tomb was already half finished and I instinctively stepped to the edge, but soon I was told that I wasn't allowed to stand there, and when I asked why not, I was shown that I was standing on the grave of someone resting next to it. When the grave was near completion, two men crouched at the edge of it and evidently looked into it with great interest, speaking quietly, now with each other, now each individually, now calling in with a weak but ghostly voice, now on this side, now on that side; As they shouted, one of them shook the old piece of clothing hanging over his shoulders with both hands.

( 066 ) While these customs were being observed, two men and two women went off in opposite directions, the former to the south, the latter to the north. After a short absence they returned at full speed, not in the direction in which they had set off, but the men from the north and the women from the south, so that each pair must have made a semicircle. The two men each held an old, extinguished firebrand in both hands, which they held close to their ear and hurried with it in a slightly bent position, as if they wanted to catch someone. This was exactly the case with the women, only with the difference that instead of the firebrands they had small bunches of hay. This difference must be significant, since the natives have expressed it in the naming of the people who carry out the use described, the men being called "Ngara-kupa," two compound words, the first of which means "wood," and the women being called "Tuta-unjo," (tuta means grass or hay). Although both parties were not equally close to the grave when they saw each other, they still managed to take the last accelerated steps in an instant. Then they, along with those augurs(81) already mentioned, surrounded the grave, and the men planted their wood and the women their hay in the earth that had been thrown out of the grave. Now all the remaining natives stood up; some searched for dry grass and tree bark and placed them at the bottom of the grave. The husband of the deceased and a few others then threw themselves around the body and made a short, touching lamentation, after which the body was then lowered. As soon as it touched its resting place and the dry bark broke, those standing first shook their heads and made a muffled noise, mainly indicating disgust, which was immediately imitated by the whole group.

( 067 ) I inquired about the cause of both this and the previous customs, but could not find out anything definite, except that they all have reference to the evil "Kuinjo". Now so many people crowded around the grave to help with the digging,