onies. The funeral procession then forms up and slowly passes
along the way to the plaintive music of flutes (_sharati_) and the
beating of drums. At intervals, in the case of the rich, salutes from
guns are fired. Copper coins are also scattered along the route. On
nearing the pyre the dead body is exposed to view, and the pieces
of flesh of the sacrificial animals, which are with the corpse,
are thrown away. They make ready three baked loaves (_ki kpu_), an
egg, the lower jar-bones of the animals which have been sacrificed,
the left leg of the fowl (_u'iar krad lynti_), a jar of water,
eatables in a dish, and a bow and three arrows. A goat is then
sacrificed, _u'lang mawkjat_. The corpse is laid on the pyre, inside
the coffin, if one is used, with the head to the west and the feet
to the east. Logs of wood are placed around the body, and the egg,
"_u'leng kpeh_," is broken, not over the stomach of the deceased,
as has been sometimes supposed, but by being thrown on the pyre
in the direction of the feet of the corpse. Fire in applied to the
pyre, first by the _kur_, or members of the clan, and then by the
children, if any, of the deceased. Another fowl, "_u'iar padat_,"
is sacrificed, its blood being smeared round the pyre three times,
and across the corpse three times. The bier is then broken to pieces,
the cloths having been removed from it previously. The eatables and
the jaw-bones of the sacrificial animals are then placed at the head
of the pyre. After the fowl (_u'iar padat_) has been sacrificed,
the three arrows already mentioned are shot from the bow, one to
the north, another to the south, and the third to the east. These
arrows are called _ki'nam tympem_. It is, perhaps, significant that
the arrows which are shot at death despond in numbers with those
which are used at the time of the birth ceremony. When the fire
has blazed up, another goat, "_u'lang dholia_," is sacrificed. In
some cases all the clothes of the deceased are burnt with the body,
in others the clothes are merely held over the fire and then taken
away, after which they can be used (this is only in the case of poor
persons). Before leaving the burning-place the relatives and friends
of the deceased place betel-nuts on the pyre and bid farewell to the
deceased, saying "_Khublei khie leit bam kwai sha iing u Blei ho_"
(good-bye, go and eat betel-nut in the house of god). When the body has
been thoroughly burnt, the fire is extinguished with water,