ght back from the fields, a
portion of them is offered in a bowl to the spirits of the forefathers
in the house of the landowner, and the spirits are addressed in prayer
as follows: "O ye who have guarded our field as we prayed you to do,
there is something for you; now and henceforth behold us with favour."
While the family are feasting on the rest of the first-fruits, the
householder will surreptitiously stir the offerings in the bowl with his
finger, and will then shew the bowl to the others as a proof that the
souls of the dead have really partaken of the good things provided for
them.[424] A hunter will also pray to his dead father to drive the wild
pigs into his net.[425]

[Sidenote: Burial and mourning customs of the Bukaua.]

The Bukaua bury their dead in shallow graves, which are sometimes dug
under the houses but more usually in front of or beside them. Along with
the corpses are deposited bags of taro, nuts, drinking-vessels, and
other articles of daily use. Only the stone axes are too valuable to be
thus sacrificed. Over the grave is erected a rude hut in which the
widower, if the deceased was a married woman, remains for a time in
seclusion. A widow on the death of her husband remains in the house.
Widow and widower may not shew themselves in public until they have
prepared their mourning costume. The widower wears a black hat made of
bark, cords round his neck, wicker work on his arms and feet, and a torn
old bracelet of his wife in a bag on his breast. A widow is completely
swathed in nets, one over the other, and she carries about with her the
loincloth of her deceased husband. The souls of the dead dwell in a
subterranean region called _lamboam_, and their life there seems to
resemble life here on earth; but the ideas of the people on the subject
are very vague.[426]

[Sidenote: Initiation of young men among the Bukaua. Lads at
circumcision supposed to be swallowed by a monster.]

The customs and beliefs of the Bukaua in regard to the initiation of
young men are practically identical with those of their neighbours the
Yabim. Indeed the initiatory ceremonies are performed by the tribes
jointly, now in the territory of the Bukaua, now in the territory of the
Yabim, or in the land of the Kai, a tribe of mountaineers, or again in
the neighbouring Tami islands. The intervals between the ceremonies vary
from ten to eighteen years.[427] The central feature of the initiatory
rites is the circumcision of the