Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/25

Rh grave sitting, and we do not know definitely of cases in which the body lies on its side as is so frequently the practice in other parts of the world. The place of interment may be within or immediately in front of the house, or in a mound of earth or stone which may be circular or pyramidal in form. The grave may be of a simple kind or the corpse may be placed in a recess shut off from the main part of the grave. The body may be covered with earth from which it is sometimes separated by a stone slab, or it may be placed in a grave which is not filled in, or buried with the head projecting above the ground.

In another variety of disposal the body is artificially preserved. In these cases it may be dried either by the heat of the sun or more frequently by means of a fire burning beneath a platform upon which the body is placed. Preservation may also be effected by packing the body with chalk. Sometimes the process of preservation is assisted by evisceration, but we have no definite evidence of any practice in this region which can be called embalming. When the preservation is ensured, the body may be placed in a canoe, in a wooden bowl, or in a vessel having the form of a human being, fish, or other animal.

In some parts of Melanesia only the head is preserved, no care being taken concerning the rest of the body, and this preservation of the head also follows that mode of interment in which the head is left above the ground. Other modes of disposal are to place the body in a cave or hollow tree: or to throw it into the sea, while there are traces of the Polynesian practice of sending the body to sea in a canoe. Lastly, certain parts of Melanesia are the seats of the practice of cremation.

Not infrequently two or more of these customs may be combined. Thus, after cremation the ashes may be interred or thrown into the sea, or after a body has been buried, the bones may be disinterred and placed in a cave or tree, while the custom according to which a body is