Toward noon of the last day, some of the men begin clearing away the bamboo, which protects the old burial, and to remove the dirt.

The grave is generally of one of the forms indicated in Fig. 3, and when a depth of about three feet has been reached, the workers encounter stone slabs which protect a lower chamber. [100] When these are reached, the diggers make an opening and thrusting in burning pine-sticks, they call to the dead within, “You must light your pipes with these.”  As soon as the slabs are raised, the oldest female relative of the deceased goes into the grave, gathers up the bones of the last person interred, ties them into a bundle, and reburies them in one corner.  There is at present no such type of burial chamber, as is described by La Gironiere, [101] nor is there a memory or tradition of such an arrangement.  As his visit took place less than a century ago, it is unlikely that all trace of it would have been lost.  The heavy rainfall in this district would make the construction and maintenance of such a chamber almost impossible, while the dread of leaving the corpses thus exposed to hostile spirits and the raids of enemies in search of heads would also argue against such a practice.  His description of the mummifying or drying of the corpse by means of fires built around it [102] is likewise denied by the old men of Manabo, who insist that they never had such a custom.  It certainly does not exist to-day.  In a culture, in which the influence of custom is as strong as it is here, it would seem that the care of the corpse, which is intimately related to the condition of the spirit in its final abode, would be one of the last things to change, while the proceedings following a death are to-day so uniform throughout the Tinguian belt, that they argue for a considerable antiquity.

When the grave is ready, the fact is announced in the dwelling, and is the signal for renewed lamentation.  The wife and near relatives throw themselves on the corpse, caressing it and crying wildly.  Whatever there may have been of duty or respect in the wailing of the first two days, this parting burst of sorrow is genuine.  Tears stand in the eyes of many, while others cease their wailing and sob convulsively.  After a time an old woman brings in some oldot seeds, each strung on a thread, and fastens one on the wrist of each person, as a protection against the evil spirit Akop, who, having been defeated in his designs against the widow, may seek to vent his anger on others.

When this has been done, a medium seats herself in front of the body; and, covering her face with her hands, begins to chant and wail, bidding the spirit to enter her body.  Suddenly she falls back in a faint, while suppressed excitement is manifested by all the onlookers.  After a moment or two, fire and water are placed at her head and feet, “in order to frighten the spirit away,” and then the medium gives the last message of the dead man to his family.  This is, except for very rare exceptions, the only time that the spirits of the deceased communicate with mortals; and it is, so far as the writer has been able to learn, the only occasion when the medium repeats messages given to her.  At other times she is possessed by natural spirits, [103] who then talk directly with mortals.