d spirit.[445]

[Sidenote: Burial and mourning customs of the Kai. Preservation of the
lower jawbone.]

When all the relations and friends have assembled and testified their
sorrow, the body is buried on the second or third day after death. The
grave is usually dug under the house and is so shallow that even when it
has been closed the stench is often very perceptible. The ornaments
which were placed on the body when it was laid out are removed before it
is lowered into the grave, and the dead takes his last rest wrapt in a
simple leaf-mat. Often a dying man expresses a wish not to be buried. In
that case his corpse, tightly bandaged, is deposited in a corner of the
house, and the products of decomposition are allowed to drain through a
tube into the ground. When they have ceased to run, the bundle is opened
and the bones taken out and buried, except the lower jawbone, which is
preserved, sometimes along with one of the lower arm bones. The lower
jawbone reminds the possessor of the duty of blood revenge which he owes
to the deceased, and which the dying man may have inculcated on him with
his last breath. The lower arm bone brings luck in the chase, especially
if the departed relative was a mighty hunter. However, if the hunters
have a long run of bad luck, they conclude that the ghost has departed
to the under world and accordingly bury the lower arm bone and the lower
jawbone with the rest of the skeleton. The length of the period of
mourning is similarly determined by the good or bad fortune of the
huntsmen. If the ghost provides them with game in abundance for a long
time after his death, the days of mourning are proportionately extended;
but when the game grows scarce or fails altogether, the mourning comes
to an end and the memory of the deceased soon fades away.[446] The
savage is a thoroughly practical man and is not such a fool as to waste
his sorrow over a ghost who gives him nothing in return. Nothing for
nothing is his principle. His relations to the dead stand on a strictly
commercial basis.

[Sidenote: Mourning costume. Widows strangled to accompany their dead
husbands.]

The mourning costume consists of strings round the neck, bracelets of
reed on the arms, and a cylindrical hat of bark on the head. A widow is
swathed in nets. The intention of the costume is to signify to the ghost
the sympathy which the mourner feels for him in his disembodied state.
If the man in his lifetime was wont to crouch shi