At the funeral of a woman no earth is thrown, but a ceremony is performed which is said to correspond to it. A woman goes in search of the leaves of the tiveri plant,[7] the leaves being called tiveri tûr. The woman who plucks the leaves must be the motvilth (daughter-in-law) of the dead woman, but if it is a child who is dead the leaves are plucked by the mother-in-law or potential mother-in-law. If a dead woman has no daughter-in-law, it was said that her daughter might pluck the leaves, but at the funeral of Kiuneimi (3), a childless woman, the leaves were sought and plucked by Naburveli, the wife of Mushkers (28), who would have called the husband of Kiuneimi “brother,” being of the same family and generation, although only his second cousin according to [[348]]our system of kinship. In this case, therefore, the leaves were plucked by a sister-in-law, or, more strictly, by the wife of the ‘brother’ of the dead woman’s husband. In this case both Kiuneimi and Naburveli were daughters of Nòdrs men, but this was probably only a coincidence.
FIG. 50.—THE ‘PUZHUTPIMI’ CEREMONY. THROWING EARTH BACKWARDS ON THE CORPSE.
At the funeral of Kiuneimi, Naburveli was accompanied by a man and by another woman, but it was quite clear that they would on no account be allowed to touch the leaves, which must be plucked by the daughter-in-law or other relative who is performing the ceremony. When found, the tiveri leaves are put by the woman in the armlet on the right arm of the dead woman. Then the men present say to the woman:—
“Parthûl In the armlet ütchka, is it put, tiveri tiveri tûr leaves parch plucking pudthka?” have you come?
and the woman replies:—
“Tiveri Tiveri tûr leaves parch plucking pudthpimi, we have come, parthûl in the armlet ûtchpimi, we have put, îr the buffalo patz!” catch!
The woman thus announces that this ceremony has been completed, and that they may proceed to the next event of the funeral rites, that of catching the buffalo.
The tiveri tûr ceremony of a woman’s funeral was said to correspond to the earth-throwing ceremony of a man’s funeral, but this correspondence may only mean that each is the first of the actual funeral ceremonies. Since, however, a woman belongs to the clan of her husband, the leaves are always put into the armlet by a woman of the same clan as the deceased. In this respect the ceremony resembles that of earth-throwing, but my informants laid stress on the fact that the ceremony should be performed by a motvilth or other relative-in-law, and no reference was made to the fact that they would be of the same clan. This makes it probable that there is no real correspondence between the two ceremonies. [[349]]