of the cutting of his necklace or something
else with a shell.

[104] Compare Dr. Seligmann's references in _Melanesians of British
New Guinea_ to the mourning removal ceremonies of the Koita (p. 165),
the Roro (p. 277), and the Mekeo (p. 359).

[105] I recognise that, though the terms "grave," "bury," and "burial"
are correctly applied to the mode of interment underground of an
ordinary person, the term "grave" is clearly an incorrect one for
the overground platform box and tree box in one or other of which
a chiefs body is placed; and the use with reference to this mode of
disposal of the dead of the terms "bury" and "burial" is, I think,
at least unsuitable. But with this apology, and for lack of a short
and convenient, but more accurate, substitute adapted to the three
methods, I use these terms throughout with reference to all of them.

[106] This Mafulu practice of tree burial is referred to in the
_Annual Report_ for June, 1900, p. 63.

[107] Platform burial in one form or another is not peculiar to the
Mafulu district. It is perhaps common among many of the mountain
people. Sir William Macgregor found it in the mountains of the
Vanapa watershed (_Annual Report_, 1897-8, pp. 22 and 23), and
Dr. Seligmann regards it, I think, as a custom among the general class
of what he calls "Kama-weka" (_Melanesians of British New Guinea_,
p. 32). Mr. J. P. Thomson records its occurrence even in the lower
waters of the Kemp Welch river (_British New Guinea_, p. 53, and
see also his further references to the matter on pp. 59 and 67). In
view of a suggestion which I make in my concluding chapter as to
the possible origin of the Mafulu people, it is also interesting to
note that platform or tree burial is, or used to be, adopted, for
important people only, by the Semang of the Malay Peninsula and the
Andamanese. As regards the Semang, though they now employ a simple form
of interment, their more honourable practice was to expose the dead
in trees (Skeat and Blagden, _Pagan Races of the Malay Peninsula_,
Vol. II., p. 89); and, though the bodies of the Pangan (East Coast
Semang) lay members were buried in the ground, those of their great
magicians were deposited in trees (_Ibid._, Vol. II., p. 91); and
apparently this was the case among the Semang as regards the bodies
of chiefs (_Ibid._, Vol. I., p. 587). And concerning the Andamanese
it is recorded that the skeleton of a man who, for reasons given, was
believed to have been