Journal of the Federated Malay States museums - Sabrizain.org

igiS.J I. H. N. Evans I
illey Sen
Katil also said that food is placed at the foot of a
morning and evening .sometimes only in the mornii
fourteen days after burial, the spiril oi the dead man being
thought to teed on what is put there for him.
i
;
On the fourteenth da) the n lativesol the dei ased bold a
irding to old custom- now. I understand, some
what neglected no ornaments hould bi worn or singing
indulged in for two month ath.
•
.
t
Katil's pi ople do not bat]
as he tolt] me, his
lore burial, becau
by a heavy rain-storn body was placed in it, this
being ascribed to the fact thai the corpse had been washed.
Graves are dug so thai th headoftl to
wards the east. The body is wrapped in mats or white cloth
and placed face upwards.
Katil explained, by means of a plan scratched on the
ground, that the grave is dug to nearly the required depth and
the bottom then divided into two section- by a line running
parallel to its sides. The left hand section (when looking
towards the head of the: grave is nexl carried down to a
i
sufficient depth, below the right hand, to receive th<
When the body has been placed in this d 11, stakes
are fixed slantwi bottom of the grave, their points
being driven into the shallower (right hand) section, and their
ends abutting against the side wall of the grave adjacent to the
excavation in which the corpse lies. A covering of tree-bark,
or ofsheetsof bamboo, is th the stakes, the body
thus being protected by a sloping roof. After this earth is
piled up on the covering until the excavation is full, and the
mound formed.
To turn now to Senoi ideas with regard to the soul and
its survival after death. As far as I could ascertain from the
Rehrang Sakai, a man's soul and his shadow are regarded as
one. The word kemoit, which I have mentioned abov
to mean the ghost of a dead mm. hut the soul, or shadow, is
i ;
\
! have
a shadow),
but does not usuall) I, in case il should not be
able to return. Tie
lala
aire idy st il
:d to be roaming the earth ''.hen violent winds are
;
ig. They are evilly disposed and hunt thi
men. which take the forms of animals >ften of the Muntjac).
This is known because people in their .beams have seen the
mis have been hunted
fall sick.
The i
tujoh, "
itly
>peak of human
boards." It appears that the earth
t to board
•
above the earth ipal nnam), as does also that
i:ele, the' earth. Both the t
and below th