on, which was painful, and they sometimes fainted under it. The
patterns were first drawn on the skin in red paint and then cut in with
the shell. They varied a good deal in shape. Some consisted of
arrangements of lines and scrolls; a favourite one, which was only
carved on women, represented a centipede. The blood which flowed from
the wounds was allowed to drip on the corpse, thus forming a sacrifice
or tribute to the dead.[306]

[Sidenote: The Dance of Death. The nocturnal dance.]

When the body had remained some time, perhaps four or six months, on the
scaffold, and the process of mummification was far advanced, a dance of
death was held to celebrate the final departure of the spirit for its
long home. Several men, seldom exceeding four in number, were chosen to
act the part of ghosts, including the ghost of him or her in whose
honour the performance was specially held. Further, about a dozen men
were selected to form a sort of chorus; their business was to act as
intermediaries between the living and the dead, summoning up the shades,
serving as their messengers, and informing the people of their presence.
The costume of the ghosts was simple, consisting of nothing but a
head-dress and shoulder-band of leaves. The chorus, if we may call them
so, wore girdles of leaves round their waists and wreaths of leaves on
their heads. When darkness had fallen, the first act of the drama was
played. The chorus stood in line opposite the mummy. Beyond them stood
or sat the drummers, and beyond them again the audience was crowded on
the beach, the women standing furthest from the mummy and nearest to the
sea. The drummers now struck up, chanting at the same time to the beat
of the drums. This was the overture. Then a shrill whistle in the forest
announced the approach of a ghost. The subdued excitement among the
spectators, especially among the women, was intense. Meantime the
chorus, holding each other's hands, advanced sidelong towards the mummy
with strange gestures, the hollow thud of their feet as they stamped on
the ground being supposed to be the tread of the ghosts. Thus they
advanced to the red-painted mummy with its grinning mouth. Behind it by
this time stood one of the ghosts, and between him and the chorus a
dialogue ensued. "Whose ghost is there?" called out the chorus; and a
strident voice answered from the darkness, "The ghost of so and so is
here." At that the chorus retreated in the same order as they had
adv