The men who break open the graves are termed takkuwi (polluted) and when all is over they bathe in the sea, and then spend the night in the "house of pollution," after a period of feasting and dance in the Elpanam, called Kiriam Anúla (digging dance).
Two or three days later the coco-palm leaves are removed from the houses at Elpanam, and another performance is held called Kiriam-nga-rit-roi-ta-oka (dance for clearing up coconut rubbish). Next morning sports and a little wrestling take place.
Finally, the people invite some of the mafais of adjacent villages to give a performance, and entertain them with gifts and feasting. This ceremony is called Afai tapoia, or Mafai tapira—grand mafai dance. When it is concluded some other village is challenged to a canoe race, and a dance and feast follow. With this ends the festival of Kana Awn.
When everything is over they carefully gather together the jawbones of the pigs that have been killed in every house, fasten them to a long rattan, and hang them up in the public building at Elpanam. In this way a comparison is made between past and present wealth, and proof is afforded of the splendour of a ceremony that impoverishes many of the hosts for years to come.
The following is an account of the ceremony of Anúla, or Ula Kopáh, as it was actually carried out in the village of Lapáti on the east coast of Kar Nicobar. It was preceded by the usual festival of Kana Awn.
Of the takkuwis (polluted ones) who were engaged in digging the graves, the men wore white loin cloths and the women petticoats of a similar colour. The graveyard was thickly screened by coco-palm leaves.
All the big houses in Elpanam, and the cooking huts in the village, were so thickly covered with leaves that no breeze could penetrate. A wall of palm leaves and four temporary huts were erected in each corner, that the takkuwis might take refreshment. Several pieces of white calico and Turkey red cloth were kept in these houses for wrapping up the bones. Those graves to be left untouched were covered with white cloth and neatly decorated.
Whilst each grave was being opened one of the tamiluanas stood at the head and fanned it with a bunch of "devil-expelling" leaves, and another man kept in readiness a palm-spathe and piece of white calico. When the grave-digger took out the skull it was cleaned by hand, carefully rolled in the calico, and placed in the spathe; all the other bones were then collected in the same spathe, which was taken away and placed over large yams scattered below the "deadhouse," where it was wrapped and bound with red and white calico. About fifty graves were opened, and the bones similarly treated. A few bundles were reinterred, but the others were taken away to a place called Kofenté (place of pollution), where they were opened, the bones thrown away and the cloth torn to rags.
After this the grave-diggers went to the sea and washed their hands and legs, and a few bathed entirely.