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[Page 172]
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INSTITUTIONS AND LAWS.
Among the Wailwun people a chief, or person regarded with unusual respect, is buried in a hollow tree. They first enclose the body in a wrapper, or coffin, of bark. The size of this coffin is an indication of the honor due to the deceased. Mr. E. J. Sparke, of Ginji, saw one chief buried in a coffin 13 feet long.
As they drop the body thus enclosed into the hollow tree, the bearers and those who stand round them; join in a loud "whirr," like the rushing upwards of a wind. This, they say, represents the upward flight of the soul (" tohi") to the sky.
In other places they deposit the dead body on the forks of a tree, and sometimes they light a fire under it, and sit down, so as to catch the droppings of the fat, hoping thus to obtain the courage and strength for which the dead man was distinguished. In some parts they eat the heart and liver of the dead for the same purpose. This is, in their view, no dishonor to the dead. And they do not eat enemies slain in battle. When the flesh is gone, they take down the bones from the trees and carry them about in baskets.
Affection sometimes induces them to carry about the bones in this manner for a long time. It is no uncommon thing for a woman to carry the body or bones of her child for years.
When a death occurs they make great wailing. All night long I have heard their bitter lamentations. In some cases the wailing is renewed year after year; and in spite of the cruelty of some of their practices, none who have heard their lamentations and seen their tears can doubt the sincerity of their grief. The fashion of their mourning is to plaster their heads and faces with white clay, and then to cut themselves with axes I have seen a party of mourning women sitting on the ground, thus plastered over; and blood running from gashes in their heads, over the clay, down to their shoulders.