If an unmarried boy dies, a girl who should be the matchuni of the dead boy, is chosen to act as his wife. It seemed that the girl might be of any age, but she must be unmarried, and therefore must nearly always be young. One of the elder brothers of the dead boy performs the salutation of kalmelpudithti to the girl’s father, or if there are no brothers this will be done by the boy’s father. The head of the girl is then covered with her mantle by her father and the girl puts food into the pocket of the mantle of the dead boy. Thus, there is no pursütpimi ceremony in the case of an unmarried boy, but a girl is chosen to act as his widow would have done if he had been married.
At the funeral of a Teivali or Melgars male who has not held any dairy office, a piece of tudr bark is placed in the right hand of the deceased by a man of the Tartharol. Every male of the Teivaliol or Melgarsol who has been a dairyman of any grade will have been purified with tudr bark during the ordination ceremonies, and the piece of bark is only given after death to those who have not been so purified.
The Interval between the two Funerals
As soon as the body is consumed at the etvainolkedr, the people go home, the near relatives taking with them the relics of the deceased. These relics are enclosed in two pieces of bark called pitûdri, taken from the tree called mûtmän. I was once told that tudr bark was used, but this is unlikely. The relics and bark are covered with plain cloth, and the whole is enclosed in a mantle of the kind ordinarily worn.
The relics, which are known as the kedr, are not taken to the chief village (etudmad) of the clan, but to other villages, usually to a definitely appointed village for each clan. If the clan should only have one village, or if the appointed village should be inconveniently distant, a small hut may be especially built in which to keep the relics till the second funeral. The near relatives of the dead person may not go to the chief village in the interval between the first and second funerals. If they are living at the chief village at the time of the death, [[368]]they must leave it and live elsewhere till the second funeral is over.
The term kedr is not only applied to the relics of the dead person, but also to the period between the two funerals, or rather the people say, “There is kedr in his family,” or “So and so, or such and such a clan, has kedr,” so that the same word is used for the funeral, for the body of a dead person, for the relics, and for the condition of persons or clans while funeral ceremonies are uncompleted.
All those who go near the corpse at a Teivali funeral become ichchiloivichi, usually abbreviated to ichchil, and the same is true of anyone who goes to a Teivali village where the relics are being kept. The whole family in which the death has occurred is spoken of as being ichchil. If anyone wishes to attend a funeral and yet avoid becoming ichchil, he must sit at some distance and take no part in the funeral proceedings. At several funerals I have seen people sitting apart from the rest in order that they might not incur the disabilities associated with the condition of ichchil, the chief of which is that it is forbidden to approach or salute a palol.
A person who has incurred ichchil remains so till the next new moon. Those in the family of the dead person remain ichchil till the new moon after the marvainolkedr, owing to the fact that between the two funerals they probably either live at or visit the village where the relics are kept.
The condition of ichchil arising from attendance at a funeral is regarded as of the same nature as that incurred by a visit to the seclusion-hut after childbirth.