nes at a funeral feast in the village
of Amalala. In the former plate the grave is very clear, and the
remains of an older grave are visible behind the post a little to the
left. At the upper end of the village enclosure are the visitors, who
are about to dance along the enclosure past the grave, and then back
again up to it. The figures in the _emone_ behind are Amalala men,
watching the performance. In the latter plate the visitor chief is
seen dancing along the village enclosure towards the grave.

In the meantime the members of the family of the deceased bring in one
or more village pigs and some vegetables. A number of sticks are laid
upon the ground over the grave, the sticks crossing each other so as
to form a rude ground platform (this is not done by any particular
person), and these sticks are covered with banana leaves. [100] The
pigs are placed on this platform, and are then killed by the pig-killer
and cut up, and the vegetables and pieces of pig are distributed by
the chief of the clan, helped perhaps by the family of the deceased,
among the male visitors. The one specially dressed visitor, being
the only one who has really danced, gets much the largest share. For
example, if there be two or more pigs, he will get an entire pig for
himself. Then the ceremony is over, and the guests return home. The
wood of the platform is not removed from the grave, but is left to
rot there. The killing of the pigs at this ceremony is regarded as
the act which will, they think, finally propitiate or drive away the
ghost of the departed.

It will be noticed that, though representatives from several
communities may be invited and come to the funeral, only one community
is invited to the subsequent funeral feast, just as only one community
is invited to the big feast, which latter we must, I think, associate
with the general superstitious idea of laying the ghosts of past
departed chiefs and notables. I cannot say what is the reason for the
confinement of these invitations to one community only, but it must, I
think, have had some definite origin [101]; and as to this I am struck
by the similarity of the Massim idea, referred to by Dr. Seligmann,
that an individual's death primarily concerns the dead man's hamlet
and one other hamlet of his clan, with which certain death feasts
are exchanged, other members of the clan being comparatively little
affected. [102]

As soon as possible after the funeral pig-killing, they catch s