Death and Burial.
(Chiefs.)
A dying chief is attended by the special woman and others in the way above described, except that many women of the clan are there, and that this special attendance and its accompanying wailing begin earlier, perhaps two or three days earlier, than in the case of an ordinary person, and that all the women of the clan who are not in the house wail outside it.
In this case, however, there is a special ceremony for ascertaining whether or not the chief is in fact going to die—a ceremony which is usually performed at his own request. Some vegetable food, probably sweet potato, or perhaps sugar-cane or taro, is given him to eat; and this he will do although he may be very ill, and may not have been taking food, though of course, if he were insensible or unable to eat, this special ceremony could not be carried out. The inedible portions of this food, e.g., the peel of the potato or the hard fibres of the sugar-cane, are then handed to certain magical persons of the community, whose special duty it is to perform the ceremony about to be described, but as to whom I was unable to ascertain who and what they are, and whether they have any other special functions besides those of this ceremony. Some of these portions of food may even be sent to some similar magic person of high reputation in another community, in order that he also may perform the same ceremony. Each of these magic persons also has handed to him a portion of a perineal band belonging to, and recently worn by, the ailing chief.
Each of the magic men then wraps up the portion of food which has been given to him in the piece of band; and this he again wraps up in leaves, and continues doing so until the parcel has become a round ball 4 or 5 inches in diameter. The men then separate, and each of them goes off alone to a spot outside the village, where he collects some very dry firewood, and heaps it up against the trunk of a tree to a height of, say, 6 feet. He then engages in an incantation, after which he puts the ball inside the bottom of the wood pile, and lights the pile at the bottom. Then he lies down by this fire and closes his eyes. After an interval of perhaps two to five minutes he gets up, as though awakening from a bad dream, and hears the wailing in the adjoining village, and asks himself what all this wailing is about; and he then appears to remember for what purpose he is there, goes to the fire, and takes out the ball. If the fire has burnt or scorched the food wrapped up in the ball, it is an indication that the chief is to die. If not, it indicates that he will live. These magic men then return to the village, and report the result. If their report be that the chief is going to live, the people cease their wailing, but if it be that he is to die, the wailing continues.
Pausing here for a moment, I may admit that, though I have told the tale of this ceremony, with its private cogitations—real or pretended—of the magic men, as it was told to me, the tale is open to obvious questions. How can a magic man from a distant community hear the wailing? What would happen if the results of the ceremonies of the various magic men were to differ? What would be the situation if a chief whose death was indicated by the ceremony lived, or if one whose recovery was foretold became worse and died? All these points I tried to elucidate without success; but possibly the answer to the query as to divergence of results may be that the men take care that the results of their experiments shall not differ.
It is believed by the natives that, if a hostile community can secure some of the food remnants and band, and hand them to their own magic man, for him to go through the same ceremony, he may maliciously bring about an unfavourable result, and thus may cause the death of the chief. If the belief that such a thing had happened arose, it would be a casus belli with that other community; and a case is known in which an inter-community fight did occur on this ground.
If the report be that the chief is to die, the special woman attendant will give him the blow on the head, as in the case of the ordinary villager. The shouting of the men outside when the chiefs death is announced is much louder than in the case of a commoner; and as they shout they brandish their spears, and strike the roof of the chiefs house with the spear points, and some of the men strike it with adzes and clubs. The spreading of the news to other communities is on a wider scale, and the number of people who respond to the news and come to the funeral is very great, and includes a larger number of chiefs and prominent men; there are more, and much larger, parties of them. The funeral song of the women, commenced on the announcement of death, lasts much longer—indeed for hours. In fact, as numerous large bodies of people keep coming in, and some of these coming from a distance may not arrive until just before the funeral, and as the funeral song has to be recommenced as each fresh party comes in, and lasts so much longer each time, it follows that this funeral song practically continues without ceasing from the moment when death is announced until the actual funeral. The immediate smearing by men and women of their bodies with mud is done by all the members of the entire community. When the guests reach the village, they are all, both men and women, smeared with mud, and they loudly call on the dead chief by his title amidi, or as babe (father). Also the various chiefs’ wives among the guests remain in the house after seeing the body, instead of coming out with the other guest women.
The funeral does not take place till thirty-six or forty-eight hours after the death. The various chiefs’ wives take part in the wrapping up of the body; and to the ordinary wrappings are added large pieces of bark cloth.
The grave[9] is quite different from that of a commoner. There are two methods of sepulture adopted for chiefs, the grave being in both cases in or by the edge of the open village enclosure.
The first of these methods is a burial platform, a very rough erection of upright poles from 9 to 12 feet high, the number of which may be four, or less or more than that, at the top of which erection is a rude wooden box-shaped receptacle, about 2 or 3 feet square, and from 6 inches to a foot deep, and uncovered at the top, in which receptacle the corpse is placed. Sometimes the supporting structure, instead of being composed of a number of poles, is only a rough tree trunk, on which the lower ends of the branches are left to support the box.
The second method is tree burial. The tree in which this is done is a special form of fig tree called gabi, the burial box, similar to the one above described, being placed in its lowest fork, or, if that be already occupied, then in the next one, and so on.[10] A tree has been seen with six of these boxes in it, one above another. This tree is specially used for such burials. The natives will never cut it down. In selecting a village site they will often specially choose one where one of these trees is growing; and indeed the presence of such a tree in the bush raises a probability that there is, or has been, a native village there.[11]
If a burial platform afterwards falls down through decay, the people throw away all the bones, except the skull and the larger bones of the arms and legs; and these they deal with in one of three alternative ways. They either (1) dig a shallow grave in the ground under the fallen platform, and put the skull and special bones there, and then fill in the grave with soil, on this put a heap of stones, and on these put the wooden remains of the collapsed platform, planting round them tobacco or croton, or some other fine-leaved plant, or (2) they put the skull and special bones in a box on the gabi burying tree, or (3) they take them to the emone, and there hang them up till they are wanted for a big feast. In the same way, if a tree box falls, they retain only the skull and large arm and leg bones, and replace them in a new box in the same tree.
We have already seen a chiefs burial platform in the two plates [69] and [70] relating to the big feast at Seluku, and the following plates are additional illustrations:—[Plate 84] is the grave of a chiefs child in the village of Malala. The supports of the grave rise from the village enclosure fence behind, and are quite distinct from the underground commoner’s grave, which is seen in front. The positions of the two graves can be seen in the general view of the village ([Plate 58]). [Plate 85] is a group of graves of chiefs and chiefs’ relatives in the village of Tullalave (community of Auga). [Plate 86] shows the grave of a chiefs child in the village of Faribe (community of Faribe). The form of this grave is quite different from those of the others, and is not, I think, so common, but a grave somewhat resembling it is seen in [Plate 60].
[Plate 87] is a gabi fig tree, used for tree burial, near to the village of Seluku, and [Plate 88] shows the remains of an old burial box in one of its forks. The bones are still in this box, and indeed one of them may be just discerned at the extreme left, close to the upright stem of the tree.
[Plate 89] illustrates what I have said as to what is done when a burial platform falls down from decay. The skull and larger arm and leg bones of the body have been buried underground, and upon these have been heaped first stones and then the remains of the collapsed platform, and one little foliage plant and dried-up looking specimens of others can be seen around it. This picture was taken in the village of Seluku, and the actual position of the grave in the village enclosure is seen in [Plate 55]. [Plate 90], of an emone in the village of Voitele (community of Sivu) illustrates the alternative plan of hanging the skull and bones up in the emone.
At the funeral all the women present, those of the village and of the whole community and the guests, join in singing the funeral song; but here again there is no actual procession, and the carrying of the body is not necessarily entrusted to any particular person. When the grave, whether on a platform or on a tree, is reached, all the men present begin to shout loudly, and there is a terrible noise. They all have their spears, but there is no brandishing of them. Then some men (anyone may do this) climb up to the box, and others hand the wrapped body up to them, and they place it lying on its back in the box. This ends the actual burial ceremony.
The black mourning face, and sometimes body-staining is then adopted by all the people of the community, and perhaps also by chiefs from other communities who have been friends of the dead chief. The special string necklace worn by the nearest relative and the other family emblems of mourning are the same as in the case of an ordinary person, except that the chiefs widow will probably also wear the special mourning network vest already described, and that the mourning shell necklace, which in the case of an ordinary man is only worn by distant relatives, is worn by all the married men and women of the clan who have or can procure it.
The subsequent ceremony and feast are in this case held one or two days after the funeral, the acceleration in the case of a chief being necessary in consequence of the retention of the corpse above ground and the foul smell which immediately begins to emanate from it. This feast is on a very large scale, though here again only one community is invited. The guests enter the village just as they do in the case of the death of an ordinary person; but they are all specially well decorated, and the one guest who comes in full dancing ornaments will certainly be a chief, or at least a chiefs son. The subsequent part of the ceremony, up to the removal of the head feather ornament from the dancer, is the same; but this removal is done by the nearest male relative of the deceased chief, who will probably be the person to whom the chieftainship has descended. Then follows the feast itself. The vegetables and village pigs for the feast are provided by the whole clan, and are in very large quantities. No platform of sticks is placed on the grave, the grave in this case not being underground; but the banana leaves are placed around (not under) the supports of the burial platform, or around the trunk of the burial tree. The pigs are killed upon these banana leaves by the pig-killer and his helpers, and the killed pigs are then placed in circles around the platform or tree, and are there cut up. The distribution of food and pig’s flesh is made by the chiefs nearest male relative, with assistance, here again the special dancer getting the largest share, and the ceremony is then over, and the guests return to their villages.
And now a true desertion of the village by its inhabitants takes place, as indeed is necessary, as the putrefying body is becoming so offensive; and it will be at least two or three weeks before the emission of the smells is over. The villagers all go off into the bush, with the exception of two unhappy men, more or less close relatives of the dead chief, who have to remain in the village. Whilst there alone they are well ornamented, though not in their full dancing decoration, but in particular, though not themselves chiefs, they wear on their heads the cassowary feathers which are the distinctive decoration of a chief, and they carry their spears. There they remain amidst the awful stench of the decomposing body and all the mess and smell of the pigs’ blood and garbage about the village. It is a curious fact that, in speaking of these two men, the natives do not speak of them as watching over the body of the chief, but as watching over the blood of the killed pigs.
When the stench is over, the villagers in the bush are informed, and they then return to the village. Then follow the killing and eating of wild pigs and sweeping down of the village, as in the case of the death of an ordinary person, but again on a much larger scale.
It will be noticed that, though the desertion of the village after a big feast lasts for six months, that which follows a chiefs funeral only lasts for a few weeks.
The removal of the mourning takes place after an interval which may be anything between one and six months. This is a special ceremony, and will not be postponed for the purpose of tacking it on to some other ceremony, as in the case of an ordinary person’s mourning removal; but other ceremonies will often be tacked on to it. The guests invited are from only one other community. Here again the person actually dealt with is the chief mourner, and the removal of mourning from him or her terminates the mourning for everyone. The village pigs for this occasion are provided by the dead man’s family, and not by the whole clan, as in the case of a chiefs funeral feast. There will probably be two or three of such pigs provided; but, as the ceremony is also available for various other ceremonies, there may be a considerable number of pigs killed. The dancing and pig-killing and feast are the same as those of an ordinary mourning-removal ceremony, but on a larger scale. The pig-killing in this case is done round the platform or tree on which the chief is buried. The buyer of the pig, who cuts off the mourning necklace and daubs the face of the chief mourner, if not a chief, will at all events be a person of importance; but the ceremonies relating to all these matters are identical with those already described. There is also the subsequent purification ceremony, at which wild pigs are killed and eaten as before.
The graves of chiefs’ wives and members of their families, and other persons of special importance, are platform or tree graves, like those of chiefs, and the funeral ceremonies on the deaths of these people are very similar to those of chiefs, though they are on a scale which is smaller, in proportion to the relative smallness of the importance of the person to be buried; and they are subject to a few detailed differences, which the difference of the situation involves. The special magic ceremony for ascertaining if the patient is or is not going to die is not performed in the case of these people.
[1] Though here and afterwards I use the word “man,” it must be understood that the notes apply to deaths of women also.
[2] This food taboo is with the Mafulu only an optional alternative; but it may be compared with the corresponding food taboo placed upon all the relatives of the deceased by the Koita (see Seligmann’s Melanesians of British New Guinea, p. 164).
[3] I was told of this Mafulu practice as being adopted only on the death of the woman’s child. But the custom is referred to by the Mekeo Government Agent (Mr. Giulianetti) in the Annual Report for June, 1900, pp. 73 and 78; and, according to him, its adoption applies also to deaths of other relatives—husband, father, and mother being especially mentioned by him—and he suggests that there are rules as regards these amputations, and says he understood that a mother would cut off the first joint for her children, and the second for her husband, father, or mother. He also gives information as to the way in which the amputation is effected.
[4] The sticks are seen in the plates, having been placed on the grave before the photographs were taken.
[5] I am not aware of any ground for believing that the community invited is one with which intermarriage is specially common. Indeed, as stated above, I do not think that there are special matrimonial relationships between communities.
[6] Melanesians of British New Guinea, p. 13.
[7] I was told that in the Mekeo mourning-removal ceremony each of the persons wearing the insignia of mourning has to go through the ceremony, which consists of the cutting of his necklace or something else with a shell.
[8] Compare Dr. Seligmann’s references in Melanesians of British New Guinea to the mourning removal ceremonies of the Koita (p. 165), the Roro (p. 277), and the Mekeo (p. 359).
[9] I recognise that, though the terms “grave,” “bury,” and “burial” are correctly applied to the mode of interment underground of an ordinary person, the term “grave” is clearly an incorrect one for the overground platform box and tree box in one or other of which a chiefs body is placed; and the use with reference to this mode of disposal of the dead of the terms “bury” and “burial” is, I think, at least unsuitable. But with this apology, and for lack of a short and convenient, but more accurate, substitute adapted to the three methods, I use these terms throughout with reference to all of them.
[10] This Mafulu practice of tree burial is referred to in the Annual Report for June, 1900, p. 63.
[11] Platform burial in one form or another is not peculiar to the Mafulu district. It is perhaps common among many of the mountain people. Sir William Macgregor found it in the mountains of the Vanapa watershed (Annual Report, 1897–8, pp. 22 and 23), and Dr. Seligmann regards it, I think, as a custom among the general class of what he calls “Kama-weka” (Melanesians of British New Guinea, p. 32). Mr. J. P. Thomson records its occurrence even in the lower waters of the Kemp Welch river (British New Guinea, p. 53, and see also his further references to the matter on pp. 59 and 67). In view of a suggestion which I make in my concluding chapter as to the possible origin of the Mafulu people, it is also interesting to note that platform or tree burial is, or used to be, adopted, for important people only, by the Semang of the Malay Peninsula and the Andamanese. As regards the Semang, though they now employ a simple form of interment, their more honourable practice was to expose the dead in trees (Skeat and Blagden, Pagan Races of the Malay Peninsula, Vol. II., p. 89); and, though the bodies of the Pangan (East Coast Semang) lay members were buried in the ground, those of their great magicians were deposited in trees (Ibid., Vol. II., p. 91); and apparently this was the case among the Semang as regards the bodies of chiefs (Ibid., Vol. I., p. 587). And concerning the Andamanese it is recorded that the skeleton of a man who, for reasons given, was believed to have been a chief was found lying on a platform of sticks placed across forks of a tree about 12 feet from the ground, a mode which was compared with the method of underground burial which had previously been met with (Transactions of the Ethnological Society, New Series, Vol. V. p. 42). Mr. Portman records (History of our Relations with the Andamanese, Vol. II., p. 547) similar tree burial of two chiefs and the wife of a chief, and refers to the practice of burying underground “or, what is more honourable,” on a platform up in a tree (Ibid., Vol. I., p. 43). The practice is also mentioned by Mr. Man, who, after referring (The Andaman Islanders, p. 76) to underground interment and platform burial, of which “the latter is considered the more complimentary,” states (pp. 76 and 77) that a small stage is constructed of sticks and boughs about 8 to 12 feet above the ground, generally (the italics are mine) between the forked branches of some large tree, and to it the body is lashed.