Identifier: landofnewguineap00rawl (find matches)
Title: The land of the New Guinea pygmies; an account of the story of a pioneer journey of exploration into the heart of New Guinea
Year: 1913 (1910s)
Authors: Rawling, Cecil Godfrey, 1870- Harrison, Herbert Spencer, b. 1872
Subjects: British ornithologists' union expedition Ethnology -- Indonesia Papua Negritos Papua (Indonesia) -- Description and travel
Publisher: London : Seeley, Service & co., limited
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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h the coming of the daylightall fear of a disaster vanished, the spirits of the nativesregained their phlegmatic calm and, before an hour hadpassed, fires were burning in the stern of each canoe andthe eternal sago-balls were blackening on the embers. It was a sad scene all the same, and all the moredepressing by the continual waihng of the dead mansrelatives. Later on in the day, when the land was oncemore exposed, the body, wrapped in leaves and bits ofold matting, was placed on a platform which had beenhastily erected close at hand, and the people, dispensingwith what little clothing is customary, plastered them-selves with mud and mourned to the setting of the sun.On this platform the corpse remained for two days, andwas then transferred, firstly into a canoe-shaped coffin,and then into a ncAvly-dug grave. Although placedtwo or three feet below the surface of the surroundingground, the coffin was not closed, nor was the gravefilled in. Fresh obsequies attended the removal, and 224
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N A Pairiarch The oldest man of the up-river tribes, who, on account of his age, wielded a wooden instead of a stone club. A BURIAL since the dead patriarch was a man of influence, morerites were paid him than is usual in these parts. For the first time since the death the deceasedswife and sister appeared, and, in the same state of nudityas the more distant relatives, crawled on hands andknees to the place of interment. As far as we couldmake out, their duty was to turn over the body daily,with the supposed object of hastening decomposition.Painted and decorated posts were erected at the headand feet of the grave, and the whole fenced in. Fromtime to time visitors on arrival and departure demon-strated their respect for the deceased by the usuallamentations at the grave-side, occasionally addingvines and fresh branches to the already tliickly-en-twined railings, in very much the same way as wreathsare brought to a funeral in England. The grave was never filled in, and though thestenc

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