Other similar parties, coming in from other villages, go through the same performance as they come into the village; and in each case, as the women of each fresh party come out of the house after seeing the corpse, there is a fresh outburst of the funeral song on the part of all the women present, but always only for a few minutes.  This goes on till the last batch of visitors has arrived.  The people of the village know when this last batch has come, because they have been told by cross-valley shouting which villages are sending parties.  The total number of women in the village is then generally very large.  After the last batch of visitors has arrived, and until the funeral ceremony, all the women again break out into the funeral song for a few minutes about once an hour in the daytime, but not so often at night.

The funeral takes place probably about twenty-four hours after death.  The body is now wrapped up by the special woman attendant, helped by the female relatives of the deceased, in leaves, especially banana leaves, and bark of trees, and remains so wrapped up in the house.

It is placed with the knees bent up to the chin, and the heels to the buttocks.  In the meantime men of the village dig a grave 2 or 3 feet deep in the village open enclosure.  When all is ready the funeral song begins again, the singers this time being the female relatives of the deceased and the women who have come from outside villages, but not the other women of the village of the deceased.  Men of the village then carry the corpse, wrapped and doubled up, and place it, lying on its back, in the grave.  There is no real procession from the house to the grave, though all the people assemble at the latter; but during the whole of the time, until the body is in the grave, the singing by the women of the funeral song continues.  As soon as the body is in the grave, all the men, both villagers and visitors, shout again as before, and for the same purpose.  The grave is then filled up, the women in the meantime singing as before; and when this is done the funeral is over.

The relatives of the deceased now go into mourning.  The widow or widower or other nearest relative wears the mourning string necklace already described.  He or she, and also the other near relatives, smear their faces, and sometimes, but not always, their bodies, with black, to which, as regards the face, but not the body, is added oil or water.  Some more distant relatives, instead of blackening themselves, wear the mourning shell necklace.  And all this will continue, nominally without break, until the mourning is formally removed, in the way to be explained hereafter.  As a matter of fact, the insignia of mourning are not worn without interruption, and the black smearing is by no means so retained; but on any special occasion the person would take care to appear in mourning.  There is a custom under which the widow or widower or other nearest relative may, instead of wearing the mourning string necklace, abstain during the period of mourning from eating some particular food, of which deceased was most fond. [98]