| caption: |
funeral of Ang's daughter |
| text: |
After a few minutes Yowang, Wangpo's fifteen year old son, brings a bundle of smouldering wood and puts it under a shelter made of one palm leaf. Then he sticks two red porcupine quills into the cloth for the deceased which is tied to the roof above the coffin. Between morung and corpse platform two other boys implant a bamboo stick which has been split down two thirds of its length. A string is fastened to one open end (159) and when this is pulled and then let free again the bamboo half springs back and makes a clapping sound. The long string reaches all the way to the morung and can be set into action from there. This contraption is to chase away wild animals from the corpse and during the first three nights it is set into motion several times to make the dead feel secure and not afraid of animals. |
