The site in Mal the people consider to be something like Hades, and they believe that the spirits of the dead, immediately after life is ended, take up their abode in it. Consequently they never approach it on ordinary occasions, nor do they gather coconuts from the place, though the palms grow there thickly.
When a person becomes ill, or when it is desired to expel the devil from anyone, the tamiluanas first resort there to consult with their household spirits, or familiars, and to obtain "devil-expelling" leaves.
In the event of their attempts failing, they go to another spot in distant jungle called Passa (a former settlement of the Mūs people), where they suppose the souls of their ancestors sojourn.
The burial ceremony is peculiar, and the whole motif of it seems to be that if the corpse return to the village the ghost will be able to accompany it and haunt the place.
If a death should occur in the village proper, the natives, after conveying the corpse to the "deadhouse" in Elpanam, for fear of the spirit, barricade themselves for a time in their houses, and keep fires burning before the doors.
When a Kar Nicobarese becomes moribund he is taken to the "deadhouse," or "house of pollution," and there left to die, with bunches of "devil-exorcising" leaves about his bed. After the end has come, all friends bring a piece of cotton, in which the corpse is swathed subsequent to being washed in coconut water. It is then lifted by two men and, while kept in an upright position, lowered down the ladder and delivered to a number of friends waiting below, who try to prevent its burial. These, with the intention of returning it to the house occupied in life, attempt to bear it towards the village, but the movement is opposed by the rest of the community, who are in the majority. Much struggling takes place about the corpse, and it is very roughly handled, but at length it is forced towards the burial-ground and flung violently into the grave. Sucking pigs and fowls are then killed, and after blood from them is sprinkled over the body, are placed beneath the arms and legs.[210] The grave is then filled up, and on the third day is decorated, and marked by three bamboos, to which young coconuts are fastened for the purpose of engrossing the attention of the ghost. The house of mourning is also covered with young coco-palm leaves and sprinkled with sacrificial pigs' blood.
After the death of a person, houses, canoes, and the ground about the village are covered with palm leaves to prevent the ghost from entering.
Theoretically, all the possessions of the deceased are destroyed,[211] but the practice is now confined to personal property, as spoons, dáos, clothes. Some of his pigs are killed, a few coco palms cut down, and on rare occasions his house is burnt, or unroofed and left deserted. What remains goes to the children.
There is no belief in a future state, but it is thought that, for a time, the ghost will haunt the vicinity.
For some days after a death the tamiluanas institute ceremonies for the purpose of expelling the ghost from the village.