The subsequent ceremony and feast are in this case held one or two days after the funeral, the acceleration in the case of a chief being necessary in consequence of the retention of the corpse above ground and the foul smell which immediately begins to emanate from it. This feast is on a very large scale, though here again only one community is invited. The guests enter the village just as they do in the case of the death of an ordinary person; but they are all specially well decorated, and the one guest who comes in full dancing ornaments will certainly be a chief, or at least a chiefs son. The subsequent part of the ceremony, up to the removal of the head feather ornament from the dancer, is the same; but this removal is done by the nearest male relative of the deceased chief, who will probably be the person to whom the chieftainship has descended. Then follows the feast itself. The vegetables and village pigs for the feast are provided by the whole clan, and are in very large quantities. No platform of sticks is placed on the grave, the grave in this case not being underground; but the banana leaves are placed around (not under) the supports of the burial platform, or around the trunk of the burial tree. The pigs are killed upon these banana leaves by the pig-killer and his helpers, and the killed pigs are then placed in circles around the platform or tree, and are there cut up. The distribution of food and pig’s flesh is made by the chiefs nearest male relative, with assistance, here again the special dancer getting the largest share, and the ceremony is then over, and the guests return to their villages.
And now a true desertion of the village by its inhabitants takes place, as indeed is necessary, as the putrefying body is becoming so offensive; and it will be at least two or three weeks before the emission of the smells is over. The villagers all go off into the bush, with the exception of two unhappy men, more or less close relatives of the dead chief, who have to remain in the village. Whilst there alone they are well ornamented, though not in their full dancing decoration, but in particular, though not themselves chiefs, they wear on their heads the cassowary feathers which are the distinctive decoration of a chief, and they carry their spears. There they remain amidst the awful stench of the decomposing body and all the mess and smell of the pigs’ blood and garbage about the village. It is a curious fact that, in speaking of these two men, the natives do not speak of them as watching over the body of the chief, but as watching over the blood of the killed pigs.
When the stench is over, the villagers in the bush are informed, and they then return to the village. Then follow the killing and eating of wild pigs and sweeping down of the village, as in the case of the death of an ordinary person, but again on a much larger scale.
It will be noticed that, though the desertion of the village after a big feast lasts for six months, that which follows a chiefs funeral only lasts for a few weeks.
The removal of the mourning takes place after an interval which may be anything between one and six months. This is a special ceremony, and will not be postponed for the purpose of tacking it on to some other ceremony, as in the case of an ordinary person’s mourning removal; but other ceremonies will often be tacked on to it. The guests invited are from only one other community. Here again the person actually dealt with is the chief mourner, and the removal of mourning from him or her terminates the mourning for everyone. The village pigs for this occasion are provided by the dead man’s family, and not by the whole clan, as in the case of a chiefs funeral feast. There will probably be two or three of such pigs provided; but, as the ceremony is also available for various other ceremonies, there may be a considerable number of pigs killed. The dancing and pig-killing and feast are the same as those of an ordinary mourning-removal ceremony, but on a larger scale. The pig-killing in this case is done round the platform or tree on which the chief is buried. The buyer of the pig, who cuts off the mourning necklace and daubs the face of the chief mourner, if not a chief, will at all events be a person of importance; but the ceremonies relating to all these matters are identical with those already described. There is also the subsequent purification ceremony, at which wild pigs are killed and eaten as before.
The graves of chiefs’ wives and members of their families, and other persons of special importance, are platform or tree graves, like those of chiefs, and the funeral ceremonies on the deaths of these people are very similar to those of chiefs, though they are on a scale which is smaller, in proportion to the relative smallness of the importance of the person to be buried; and they are subject to a few detailed differences, which the difference of the situation involves. The special magic ceremony for ascertaining if the patient is or is not going to die is not performed in the case of these people.
[1] Though here and afterwards I use the word “man,” it must be understood that the notes apply to deaths of women also.
[2] This food taboo is with the Mafulu only an optional alternative; but it may be compared with the corresponding food taboo placed upon all the relatives of the deceased by the Koita (see Seligmann’s Melanesians of British New Guinea, p. 164).
[3] I was told of this Mafulu practice as being adopted only on the death of the woman’s child. But the custom is referred to by the Mekeo Government Agent (Mr. Giulianetti) in the Annual Report for June, 1900, pp. 73 and 78; and, according to him, its adoption applies also to deaths of other relatives—husband, father, and mother being especially mentioned by him—and he suggests that there are rules as regards these amputations, and says he understood that a mother would cut off the first joint for her children, and the second for her husband, father, or mother. He also gives information as to the way in which the amputation is effected.