A PAGAN BEAUTY OF THE DASS TRIBE.
The incisions on the face are tribal marks.
On the demise of a father who has grown-up sons, in most tribes his possessions pass to them. A widow becomes the property of the eldest of any sons the deceased husband may have had by another wife. At times this works out that the widows are divided up among the sons. It may be assumed that the practice is a hardship on the head of the household which takes in the widow. By no means. The man who wishes to marry her has to pay dowry to her guardian, and, in the meantime, or if she is on his hands altogether, a woman is always welcomed to help in the field or to relieve another from cooking for that purpose. As a matter of fact, unless quite aged, widows go off splendidly. They are usually a thorough success. As was explained to me on a previous journey by a Chief in another country who offered a rather ancient matrimonial gift from his own ample store, it is not always the youngest who are the most tractable or industrious.
On the death of a widow having a young family her property, i.e., the children, go to her husband’s brother.
Burial usuages are marked by great diversity, according to tribal tradition. The Teria tribe, in this as in many observances, is distinct. Mourning is notified by a rope round the loins. The dead are sewn in grass mats. Cooked beans and mai—fat—are buried with him. Ten days later gia—native beer—is poured in the grave. Members of the same family are buried in one grave. When an interment takes place the remains of the preceding occupants are taken out, the latest tenant put in and the disinterred corpses—or what is left of them—placed last. This must be quite an exhilarating and healthful exercise. The top man cannot improve by the repeated handling.
The Jarawa bury anywhere in the bush, a few inches deep, the face of the dead covered with a cloth. There is no regular cemetery.
A Burrum man of position is sewn in the skin of his horse and buried behind his house. Individuals of lesser rank are enclosed in goats’ skins and put under ground at a place in the bush kept for that use. The flesh of the animals whose integument has formed the shroud, whether horse or goats, are eaten at the feast which immediately follows the funeral. If a man expresses a wish that his other horses be killed at his death, that is done and the hides buried with him.