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visit to Yekhum and Sanis |
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Today we saw the grave of a headman who had just died. He was buried outside the door of his house and his grave is covered with bamboos, some planks from his bed and matting. A little fence is built round the grave and at the corners on the top of a bamboo are hung offering - a gourd of rice beer, a little rice and six pieces of meat. His dao-holder, bears'-hair circlet and ivory bracelets were on his grave and his red cloth was also hung up to show he had performed a mithan sacrifice. A little fire was burning at the head of the grave, 'to keep the mosquitoes from biting him in the afterworld'. For a year the family will continue to put an offering of their first fruits on his grave; a cucumber, some maize or a bunch of bananas. His poor old widow wept bitterly as we stood by the grave. |
