Page:Hindu Feasts Fasts and Ceremonies.djvu/54

38 rich people sometimes spending a large sum of rupees on these funeral obsequies in the belief that any amount so expended always adds to the meritoriousness of the spender. After these rites the body is placed on the pyre and the fire lighted. The sons of the deceased sit down and are clean shaved, and after that bathe and return. home with the other mourners. The sons and the wife of the dead man are the chief mourners. This almost ends the first day’s rites.

On the second day, the rites commence very early in the morning. The funeral pyre is examined and the remains of the deceased are collected, while prayers are said and rites performed, milk and cocoanut water being sprinkled over the ashes to appease the thirst of the dead man’s soul; and other oblations in the form of fried rice, pulses and dry cakes are offered. The funeral party then returns home. There a room is set apart, and in a corner of it a stone to represent the dead man’s body is set up, and before noon every day certain rites are performed, which end in the offering of rice-balls to the soul of the dead man. These rice-balls are then carried out and thrown away in