he chiefs
(with the great weights they are carrying) are tired; then they
stop. But the men hosts thereupon politely press them to go on again,
giving them in fact a sort of complimentary encore, and this they
will probably do. After about half-an-hour from the commencement of
the dancing they finally stop. Then the chief of the clan in one of
whose villages the dance is held comes forward and removes the heavy
head-pieces from the dancing chiefs.

Seventh: An important ceremony now occurs. The chief of the clan cuts
away the supports of the burial platform already mentioned, whereupon
the platform falls to the ground, and the skulls and bones upon it
roll on the ground. These are picked up, and the skulls and big arm
and leg bones are put on one side. There is no singing or ceremony
in connection with this. The platform is not rebuilt; and what is
afterwards done with the skulls and bones will be seen hereafter.

Eighth: There is now a distribution among the chiefs and more important
male guests of the yam, taro, sugar-cane and bananas, which at the
time of the hanging up on the village posts were kept back and put
into the houses, and of tobacco. The chief of the clan, with help from
others, makes a number of heaps of these things in the centre of the
village enclosure, the number of heaps corresponding to the number of
recipients. Then, standing successively before each of these heaps,
he calls out in turn the names of the men who are to receive them,
chiefs being given the first priority, and specially important people
the next. Each man comes forward, usually bringing with him his
wife or some other woman with a bag, picks up his heap, and takes
it away. And so with all of them in turn, till all is finished. On
each heap there is usually, but not always, a portion of a village
pig, which has that morning been killed under the burial platform,
before it was cut down. The guests, men and women, then return to
the guest houses, where the women cook the food which has been given,
and it is eaten by the men and themselves.

Ninth: The real dance now takes place, beginning perhaps at 9 or
10 in the evening, and lasting the whole night, and perhaps till 10
o'clock the following morning. The dancing is done by some only of
the guest men, and none of their women, and none of the hosts, either
men or women, join in it. The dancers are all arrayed in full dancing
ornaments, including their heavy head feather erections, and