arily laid on the bank of the
stream, while all the men, with heads uncovered, collected large stones
and pieces of wood. With the stones a circular crematory oven, five feet
high, six feet in diameter, with an opening on the side facing the wind,
was erected by the water-side. The wife and daughters of the departed,
with their hoods turned inside out and with covered faces, squatted down
meanwhile by the hearse, moaning and keeping a small fire alight. When
all preparations were made, the oven being heaped up with logs of wood,
the body was untied from the stretcher and lifted by two intimates of the
departed on to the funeral pile.

[Illustration: WEEPING WOMEN UNDER WHITE CLOTH]

All valuables were removed, his gold earrings, his silver locket and
bracelets; and a large knife was used for some purpose or other which I
could not quite see, except in slitting the lobes of the corpse's ears to
remove his earrings more quickly. Branches of pine-tree were deposited on
the body, and a large pot of butter was set by its side. A brass bowl of
_choekti_ (wine) was poured on the head, and then, in profound silence,
fire was set to the pile.

A few white puffs showed that it had caught fire, and then a dense column
of black smoke rose from it, filling the atmosphere with a sickening
smell of singed hair and burning flesh. The wind blew the smoke towards
me, and I was enveloped in it for some moments, during which I could see
nothing of what was going on, and I felt my eyes smart and my nostrils
fill with the smoke and the stench. Gradually a tall flame, over twenty
feet high, leaked out, consuming the body and showing me, as the
atmosphere cleared, the Shokas down by the river washing their hands and
faces to cleanse themselves of what they look upon as unclean, the
contact with a corpse. Retracing their steps to the village, the women
cried and moaned, carrying back to the house the clothes of the deceased
and his brass bowls.

[Illustration: SHOKA FUNERAL PILE]

[Illustration: WOMEN DUSTING AND CARESSING THE LAY FIGURE]

Reaching home, it was incumbent on them to provide lavishly for the
amusement of the dead man's soul. A lay figure crudely constructed of
straw and sticks was attired by them in the clothes of the departed, and
covered over with Indian fabrics embroidered in gold and red and blue,
and a turban was stuck on the head, with a _panache_ made of a branch of
fir-tree. The _Kalihe_ was at the side of the image