, were smashed or destroyed. The debris was stored
behind a screen in the hut, where subsequently was also kept the hearse
in which the body was conveyed to the burial spot. The body, wrapped in a
palm-leaf mat, was then interred in a shallow oval grave just outside his
hut. A wooden beam was placed directly over the body, and then the hollow
was covered over with some six or eight inches of earth. A few branches
of trees and some thorns were thrown over it to indicate the spot.

For twenty days in the evening and night moans resounded through the air.
More tears were shed by the relatives and by the _barih_, who frequently
proceeded to the grave to pour water on it. On the twentieth day, while
some one set at play the awe-inspiring revolving board, others proceeded
to exhume the body--by then in a state of absolute decomposition. The
remains were taken to the stream and the bones cleaned with great care.
The skull was placed within two inverted hemispherical baskets, whereas
all the other bones of the body were heaped into a third concave basket
of a larger size.

It was on their return--with moans and chanting--to the _bayto_, or
meeting-place in the _aldeia_, that the most touching scene ensued. The
skull was decorated with a design of coloured feathers, while those
present inflicted wounds upon their own bodies, shedding blood upon the
basket of remains. The women, moreover, tore one by one each hair from
their heads and bodies in sign of mourning.

After this the skull and bones were placed within another basket, and
were either cremated or thrown to the bottom of a river. The property of
the deceased was then set ablaze.

I noticed in a hut a skirt made of long palm leaves. It was donned at
funerals. There were also several long rudimentary flutes, formed by a
cane cylinder with a rounded mouthpiece inserted into another. These
flutes, too, were used only on such mournful occasions.

The _barih_ received a present from relatives at the death of individuals
in the tribe. The family remained in mourning from five to six months.
The widow, at the death of her husband, was expected to tear each hair
off her scalp, one by one, until her head remained as bald as a
billiard-ball. She generally did it.

The corpses of women were treated slightly differently. When a woman died
she was buried _pro tem._ A feast was given to the tribe. The process of
denudation having been given ample time to leave her skeleton clean, h