. When the fire was
extinguished, a visit was paid to the cremation spot by the relatives of
the deceased, and such pieces of bone as the knee-joints, elbows, and the
larger vertebrae of the spine, usually left undestroyed by the flames,
were collected and deposited inside the clothes of the image. Wheat,
rice, and flour were purchased in large quantities and cooked to provide
food for the multitude of friends who remained the guests of the family
during the whole time of the funeral. A sheep a day is usually killed and
eaten on such occasions, and cask after cask of _choekti_ (wine), _zahn_
(a liquor distilled from barley, rice and wheat), and _anag_ (from
fermented grain of various kinds) are emptied by the mourning crowd. The
women folk of the dead man mourned round the effigy, resting their heads
on it, crying and imploring the beloved one to return to life. Other rows
of women, with their hoods turned inside out in sign of mourning, danced
gracefully in circles round the dressed-up figure, left the house by one
door in the basement, described an arc in the open, and returned by
another door, while men were dancing a doleful dance outside the house.
Beating of drums went on the whole day--languid and sad at moments;
excited, violent and rowdy at others, according to the mood of the
musicians and the quantity of liquor consumed by them. On each day of
these proceedings, which lasted for three or four days, rice, baked
wheat, and wine were placed before the effigy, until, when it was assumed
that the soul of the dead had had a sufficiently amusing time,
arrangements were made for its transmigration from the lay figure into a
live sheep or yak. If the deceased is a man, the animal chosen to
represent him is a male; if a woman, a female; but no ceremony of this
sort follows the cremation of children under ten or twelve. In the case
of the old man whose funeral I witnessed, a sheep was chosen, instead of
the time-hallowed yak, the procuring of which from Tibet used to be a
very costly business. The use of a sheep for these sacrifices is quite a
recent innovation, brought into fashion by the greatest Shoka trader in
Garbyang, called Gobaria, whose intention it was to put down the
unnecessary waste of these ceremonies; but many pious Shokas, I was
assured, are not satisfied with so small an offering as a single sheep,
and slaughter two or even more on these occasions.

[Illustration: WOMEN DANCING ROUND THE LAY FIGURE]

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