Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 27, 1916.djvu/403

 The Magical and Ceremonial Uses of Fii-e. 375

rises upon thy breast." ^ The date of this tomb is early 1 8th Dynasty.

In Austrah'a, among some of the northern tribes, after the flesh of the deceased has been eaten, the bones are wrapped in bark cloth, and are placed in a forked stick stuck upright in the centre of a small, cleared space, which is surrounded by a circle of sand with an opening at one side. Inside this circle a fire is made and is kept burning. It has to be ceremonially lighted by friction of wood. No one but the father and mother of the dead person may go near it, and all the fire-sticks are sacred and may not be removed. A special name is given to this fire {koaka) to distinguish it from an ordinary fire {piii-uka). It is regarded as being kurta-kuria (taboo). The spirit comes and hovers over it, and is sometimes seen standing near it by the father and mother.-

In some Australian tribes fires are placed on graves for a different purpose. The relations fear the return of the spirit ; so the head of the deceased is cut off before inter- ment, after which the body is buried in a squatting atti- tude. On the top of the grave a fire is lighted, in which the head is roasted. This fire is kept up until the head is thoroughly burnt and broken up ; then it is allowed to go out. The idea is that the spirit rises out of the grave to endeavour to follow its tribe ; but, being headless, it cannot see, and gropes about to find the missing head. While it is searching about, it gets burnt by the fire, which frightens it so much that it retires to its grave immediately and gives no further trouble.^

In Madagascar an earthen dish filled with burning cow-dung is placed at the head of the grave, at which

ij. J. Tylor and F. LI. Griffith, The Tomb of Paheri at El Kab. -Baldwin Spencer and F. J. Gillen, Northern Tribes of Central Australia, P- 549-

3F. C. Urquhart,/.-^.-/. vol. 14, 1884, p. 88.