survive you; would that I had died for you!" These and other doleful
cries might have been heard two hundred yards from the house; and they
were accompanied by the most frantic expressions of grief, such as
rending garments, tearing the hair, thumping the face and eyes,
burning the body with small piercing firebrands, beating the head with
stones till the blood ran, and this they called an "offering of blood"
for the dead.

After an hour or so the more boisterous wailing subsided, and, as in
such a climate the corpse must be buried in a few hours, preparations
were made without delay. The body was laid out on a mat, oiled with
scented oil, and, to modify the cadaverous look, they tinged the oil
for the face with a little turmeric. The body was then wound up with
several folds of native cloth, the chin propped up with a little
bundle of the same material, and the face and head left uncovered,
while, for some hours longer, the body was surrounded by weeping
relatives. If the person had died of a complaint which carried off
some other members of the family, they would probably open the body to
"search for the disease." Any inflamed substance they happened to find
they took away and burned, thinking that this would prevent any other
members of the family being affected with the same disease. This was
done when the body was laid in the grave.

While a dead body was in the house no food was eaten under the same
roof; the family had their meals outside, or in another house. Those
who attended the deceased were most careful not to handle food, and
for days were fed by others as if they were helpless infants. Baldness
and the loss of teeth were supposed to be the punishment inflicted by
the household god if they violated the rule. Fasting was common at
such times, and they who did so ate nothing during the day, but had a