Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 26, 1915.djvu/150

 140 Myths of Origin and

of the orientation of the dead. The Badoej inter their dead in an east- west position, with the head at the west end ; the body lies on the right side, so that it is thus facing to the south, the direction of the land of the dead.^^ In the Babar archipelago the dead are placed in canoes, the head being at the east end and facing to the west.^^ The Pangin cremate their dead in a sitting position facing the east,^- and the Savoe folk inter their dead in a sitting position facing the west.^^ The dead are thus not only supposed to go in a certain direction, but they are so placed that their attitude is in a definite relation to this direction. Not only is orientation towards the land of the dead found in these cases where this land is situated in some given direction, but cases occur in which houses and images are also placed in a position related to this direction. For example, among the Badoej, the chief's house stands at the south end of the village ; next to it and north of it stands the village-house, and north of that again is the common rice-stamping house.^* The Tobada of Central Celebes offer another example. Their village-house is built in a north-south direction, with the door at the south end. The sacred part of this house is the north chief pile, to which is hung a bunch of palm leaves in which the ghosts of the dead come occasionally to live. The land of the dead is situated in the north. These people also have two stone images, one at Boelili and the other at Gintoe, which also face to the north.^^

It will be evident from these examples that the relation- ship between the dead and the living influences the social

1° J. Jacobs, De Badoejs, 1S91, p. 92; Kruijt, op. cit., p. 373; V. Ende, op. cit., p. II ; S. A. Buddingh, Neerland's Oost-Indie, 1859, vol. ii., p. 61.

iiRiedel, op. cit., p. 360.

^■•^Kuhr, op. cit., p. 77. It may be mentioned that the Pangin also sleep with their faces turned to the east.

iSRiedel, Rev. Col. Int., 1885, p. 309. ^U'. Ende, op. cit., p. 9.

"A. C, Kruijt, Het landscltap Bada, pp. 358, 359, 361, 366.