ling into a trance after the approved fashion of mediums
in many lands. After this ceremony the image is supposed to be animated
by the soul of the deceased, and it is kept in the house with as much
confidence as any other.[496]

[Sidenote: Sometimes the head of the image is composed of the skull of
the deceased.]

Sometimes the head of the image consists of the skull of the deceased,
which has been detached from the skeleton and inserted in a hole at the
top of the effigy. In such cases the body of the image is of wood and
the head of bone. It is especially men who have distinguished themselves
by their bravery or have earned a name for themselves in other ways who
are thus represented. Apparently the notion is that as a personal relic
of the departed the skull is better fitted to retain his soul than a
mere head of wood. But in the island of Ron or Run, and perhaps
elsewhere, skull-topped images of this sort are made for all firstborn
children, whether male or female, young or old, at least for all who die
from the age of twelve years and upward. These images have a special
name, _bemar boo_, which means "head of a corpse." They are kept in the
room of the parents who have lost the child.[497]

[Sidenote: Mode of preparing such skull-headed images.]

The mode in which such images are prepared is as follows. The body of
the firstborn child, who dies at the age of years or upwards, is laid in
a small canoe, which is deposited in a hut erected behind the
dwelling-house. Here the mother is obliged to keep watch night and day
beside the corpse and to maintain a blazing fire till the head drops off
the body, which it generally does about twenty days after the death.
Then the trunk is wrapped in leaves and buried, but the head is brought
into the house and carefully preserved. Above the spot where it is
deposited a small opening is made in the roof, through which a stick is
thrust bearing some rags or flags to indicate that the remains of a dead
body are in the house. When, after the lapse of three or four months,
the nose and ears of the head have dropped off, and the eyes have
mouldered away, the relations and friends assemble in the house of
mourning. In the middle of the assembly the father of the child crouches
on his hams with downcast look in an attitude of grief, while one of the
persons present begins to carve a new nose and a new pair of ears for
the skull out of a piece of wood. The kind of wood varies accordin