Except in the case of infants or very small children the dead are not buried immediately, but are put into a death chair around which funeral rites are held. In the meantime animals belonging to the dead person or his relatives are killed and eaten, while the burial is delayed.
The interval between the death and the burial varies according to the wealth of the deceased, sometimes lasting for months in the case of the very wealthy. Even when the health authorities force immediate burial on account of danger from infectious diseases, the siling continues just the same with a dummy corpse in the death chair.
Before anything is killed, the mambunong prays, asking that the food eaten at the siling may not cause sickness. A female relative then leans on the death chair and says the following:
“You are dead, ——. We are giving everything we can for your siling. Do not come back for us, but let us live long.”
After the siling ends the corpse is put into the coffin and buried in the ground, or placed in a natural cave. The burial takes place either in the afternoon, between sunset and dark, or in the morning before the sun rises.
Pugas
After a dead person has been buried, the people gather in his yard. They get a vessel of water, and the mambunong puts grass in it and sprinkles them, while saying the following:
Wada, kano, san dūa sin agī. Daeda Balitok un Obog. Nananakda ut napno san kabilibilig. Asīda naatui san kayīlianda. Natui payan inkapotda. Asīda matapog nan kayipupūgau at alanda san ūsay pingan ya līma ay tabon di pao, ut manpagasda. Manpagasda pay, kano, yan laton ūtay magay mamatui un daeda. Ingayan duiay ya lida ut ipūgasdasnan kayi ipūipūgau ut sianan moada matui, maagum san ipūgau ut manpagasna.
There were two brothers. They were Balitok and Obog. They had children, and the mountains fell. Then their neighbors died. When they died they buried them. Then the people gathered together, and took one plate and five leaves of cogon grass and made a ceremony. They made the ceremony then so that none of them would die. Then they handed it down to the people so that when there were deaths, the people would gather together and perform the ceremony.