ng the entrance to
the earth burrow of some giant animal, and there the strange corpse was
placed on the ground. A small group of people, including one old woman,
was awaiting the funeral party. At the back end of the burrow two men
tore away the earth and disclosed a small wall of loose stones. These
they removed and revealed a vertical entrance in the earth about 2 feet
high and 2 1/2 feet wide. Through this small opening one of the men
crawled, and crouching in the narrow sepulcher scraped up and threw
out a few handfuls of earth. We were told that the corpse before us
was the fifth to be placed in that old tomb, all being victims of the
pueblo of Kambulo, and four of whom were descendants of the first man
buried at that place -- certainly "blood vengeance" with a vengeance.

We were without means of understanding the two or three simple oral
ceremonies said over the body, but the woman played a part which it
is understood she does not in the Bontoc area. She carried a slender,
polished stick, greatly resembling a baton or "swagger stick," and
with this stood over the gruesome body, thrusting the stick again
and again toward and close to the severed neck, meanwhile repeating a
short, low-voiced something. After the body was cut from its shield
a blanket was wrapped about it -- otherwise it was nude, save for a
flayed-bark breechcloth -- and it was set up in the cramped sepulcher
facing Kambulo, and sitting supported away from the earth walls by four
short wooden sticks placed upright about it. An old bamboo-headed spear
was broken in the shaft and the two sections placed with the corpse.

The stones were again piled across the entrance, and when all was
closed except the place for one small stone a man gave a few farewell
thrusts through the opening with a stick, uttering at the same time
a short low sentence or two. The final stone was placed and the earth
heaped against the wall.

The pole to which the corpse was tied when borne to the burial
was placed horizontally before the tomb, supported with both ends
resting on the high side walls of the burrow, and on it were hung a
dozen white-bark headbands which were worn, evidently, as a mark of
mourning, by many of the men who attended the burial.

How long it would be, in a state of nature, before the tomb would be
required for another burial is a matter of chance, but a relative,
frequently a son, nephew, or brother of the dead man, would be expected
to avenge th