Page:The sexual life of savages in north-western Melanesia.djvu/195

Rh out his hand to its excrement and allowed it to make water on to his knee" (compare similar locutions quoted in section 3 of chapter i). Thus the use of relics is at the same time a relief to the bereaved widow and children, and an act of filial piety which must be rigorously-observed.

To the dead man's maternal kinsmen (veyola) the use of his bones is strictly tabooed. If they broke this taboo they would fall ill, their bellies would swell and they might die. The contact is most dangerous when the bone is still wet with the dead man's bodily juices. When, after a few years, the bones are handed over to the kinsmen, they are presented carefully wrapped in dry leaves, and are then only gingerly handled by them. They are finally deposited on rocky shelves overlooking the sea. Thus the bones pass several times from hand to hand before they come to their final rest.

More distant relatives-in-law and friends of the dead man have his nails, teeth and hair, which they make into all sorts of mourning ornaments and wear as relics. The dead man's personal possessions are used in the same way, and nowadays, when the bodily relics have frequently to be concealed, this practice is very much in favour (see frontispiece).

After the second exhumation the body is buried, the wake is over, and the people disperse; but the widow, who, during all this time, has not stirred from her husband's side, nor eaten nor drunk nor stopped in her wailing, is not yet released. Instead she moves into a small cage, built within her house, where she will remain for Rh