Page:The Melanesians Studies in their Anthropology and Folklore.djvu/285

] a corpse is burnt, at the wish of the deceased. When this is done they preserve a mangite by wrapping the head about, or enclosing it in a hollowed stem of banana, to keep it from the fire. The place where a corpse is burnt is sacred. Some corpses, again, are laid in a canoe or on a stage beside a place of sacrifice, holes being made in the bottom of the canoe, and bamboos set to carry away rain-water and the liquor of the corpse into the ground. At one time they did at Saa what now they do in Bauro; they poured water on the corpse until the flesh was consumed, and then took the skull as a mangite. In these methods of disposing of the distinguished dead, whose ghosts are expected to be lio'a a possessed of power, there may be seen very probably the effect of the belief, of which mention has been made, that the ghost continues weak while the corpse continues to smell; the lio'a of the dead man sunk in the sea, burnt, enclosed in a case, or rapidly denuded of flesh, is active and available at once.

The ornaments of a dead man are buried with him, or are kept in remembrance of him. A man's cocoa-nut and breadfruit-trees, and others, are cut down by his friends after his death, out of respect to him as they say; and they deny that they think that such things follow a man in any ghostly form, since it seems ridiculous to suppose that even pigs can have a soul, akalo. To cut trees down in this way is to ngoli; for a dead chief they ngoli-ta'a, they fence round a certain plot of ground and put his canoe in it in memory of him, with his bowl and weapons; his friends add such things of their own in honour of him, and decorate the fence with leaves and flowers. For a man of no great position they content themselves with throwing yams and other food upon the roof of the dead man's house in memory of him.

At Santa Cruz the corpse is buried in a very deep grave in the house, wrapped in many mats. For two days they cry over a man and then bury him; on the fifth day the funeral