Calling in the Soul by Patricia V. Symonds

Author:Patricia V. Symonds [Symonds, Patricia V.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780295994215
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Published: 2014-09-01T00:00:00+00:00

THE TENTH DAY: THE BURIAL

The next morning the men of the household served the women who had guarded the coffin a morning meal of rice and pork. As in weddings, when the bride eats no vegetables, these women ate no vegetable dishes, and, as occurs after childbirth, the women were served by men and ate first.

Afterward men cut two large bamboo poles to carry the coffin and took them to the dead man’s house. The eldest son gave rice, pork, and liquor to the dead man. Two men took turns beating the drum, and two men played the pipes. The musicians fell silent as Tooj’s sons gathered the rope for the coffin lid and opened the coffin one last time. The eldest son wrapped a plug of opium in a leaf and put it in his father’s hand, in case he needed to smoke on his journey. Tooj’s eldest sister examined the body and the coffin to make sure it was free of metal.

The lid was set back on the coffin and tied tightly. The two bamboo poles were strapped to the coffin, which was suspended between them, while the drum and reed pipes played loudly and mournfully. Two men took down the drum and the tree sapling it had rested on and carried them out the spirit door and up the hill. As men made ready to take the coffin out of the house, two men from another clan ran around outside, banging on the walls with large sticks to roust any evil spirits from around the house so they would not bother the dead man as he left his home. The people inside fled the house, frightened of the wild spirits who might be lurking near the body. With the primary reed-pipe player leading the way, the procession exited through the spirit door. The piper was followed by the chanter, who carried the dead man’s crossbow, a wooden spoon and bowl, a bottle of rice liquor, and a plastic bag containing a small basket, a dead chicken, some rice, and paper money. Then several men carried the coffin through the spirit door, followed by most of the people in the village.16 The procession wound up the hill until it reached a small area that had been cleared earlier by some of the village men, where two more pipers joined the crowd.17 Sometimes the chanter threw the bamboo pointers to the ground to make sure the dead man’s first soul was following the body to the grave.

A platform had been built in the clearing to hold the coffin; the four oxen to be sacrificed were waiting there. The eldest sister’s husband would sacrifice one in his wife’s name, the son-in-law would kill one in the name of Tooj’s daughter, and Tooj’s sons would sacrifice the other two. Each married son must kill an ox for his father; he owes this, as his father paid the bride-price for the son’s wife. Although a married daughter is no longer part of

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