As a rule the body is buried within three days after death, and by that time it is very necessary. When, however, for various reasons—as lack of means to provide a good funeral—it is not convenient to bury the deceased so soon, they take out the entrails and bury them, place the corpse on a frame, light a fire under it, and thoroughly smoke-dry it; and in this way they are able to keep it for a more convenient time—this may be a matter of weeks, and even months. The dried body is tied in mats, put in a roughly-made hut, and a fire is occasionally made under it. Another mode is as follows: The body is tied in mats and buried in an ordinary but shallow grave, a big fire is made on the top of the grave to dry up the moisture in the body, and to preserve it. At a more suitable time a coffin is made and the corpse buried properly; this is called likaku.
Coffins are often made out of old canoes by men who go about the district for that purpose. Considering the material and tools they are well made, the various pieces fitting closely together.
These native “undertakers,” on arriving at the place where their services are required, put up a fence of mats so as to make a private workshop. They charge so much for the job and are kept in food and drink, and any dogs, goats, etc., that push open the mats and enter the workshop are liable to confiscation if their inquisitiveness causes them to persist in entering after they have been driven away twice.
The coffins are sometimes lined and covered with cheap cloth, but more often they are stained with arnotta dye and ornamented with yellow and blue pigments. All the materials are supplied by the family. Clumsily-made native nails, or wooden pins, are used, unless they can procure nails from the nearest white man. Sometimes the parts are laced together. Poorer folk are rubbed with oil, and red camwood powder, bound round with cloth, and tied up in a mat; and those who are very poor are simply tied in their sleeping-mats; a corpse is rarely thrown into the river or bush.
When the time for burial arrives the coffin is carried round the town on exhibition, then the corpse is placed in it, and men convey it to the place of interment, followed by relatives, male and female—not wives—friends and townsfolk generally; the wives remain behind to continue the mourning. A person often dies away from his house, and sometimes away from his town. The body is brought home and buried—if a free man or woman—in his or her house; but a slave is buried on the edge of the bush, or in any convenient place.
GRAVE FOR A WEALTHY MAN
The graves are of three kinds: (1) When the grave is dug deep enough a cutting is made at the side in which to lay the corpse so that the earth does not press on the body, thus:
(2) A notch is cut in the earth along the two sides about two feet from the bottom of the grave, and planks or sticks are laid across after the body is put in position, and the earth is thrown on the sticks. (A and B are notches or ledges to take planks or sticks.) By this means also the earth is kept from contact with the coffin.
(3) An ordinary straight-sided hole, and the earth put on the body. 1 and 2 are for important men—those whose families can afford to pay for a coffin, and they do not want it spoiled at once by having the clay—generally very wet—thrown on it; and No. 3 is for the common people.