AN INDIAN BURIAL.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18990, 11 October 1923, Page 5

AN INDIAN BURIAL.

PRAYING, DANCING, AND SINGINGL A graphic account of an Indian burial ii given by a private in the 2nd Sealorta Highlanders, stationed at Laadikotal, near the Kvber Pass, on the north-west frontier of India, in a letter to his sister m Edinburgh. Ho writes:— , . , T “ j saw a sight just last week which 1 never expected to see, but read about at school. It was a native funeral of an old man about 90, who died from some disease which is very common up here. 1 .saw • charpoy, or native bed, being earned by six native men, with a beautiful cover over it and the form of somebody under the cover so I followed at a distance of about 50 yards, keeping out of sfght to see what it was. The men carrying the were almost running, so I had a hard ](JB following them, as I was on the hillside.^ “ As last they stopped at a cemetery m a small clearing, and they all sat down round the corpse. In about 10 minutes » large procession came in sight, headed by a well-to-do-looking native on a pure white horse, who I made out to d© th© chief. At his roar close behind were six bibies, of native women, carrying large bundles of dried whins of bushes, and a wee "chico, or boy, oarrving a large earthenware jar. Then came all the villagers, about 200 all told, singing, and at times halting and •riving a dance to the tune of a small instrument producing the same sound as our pipe® and two curious shaped pieces of steel which were used as a clapper. One tune sounded to me very like ‘ The Wearing, at the Green.’ “ When they came to the cemetery they all gathered round, and an old man with a long white beard stepped forward and started praying {they go through Mine awful movements when praying. Every native prays at least three times a day, sa we see plentv of it) After he had finished —he took about 10 minutes—he brandished a long knife and cut the dead man s stomach in the shape of a cross. The • bibies ’ then started spreading the bundle* round the charpoy and the ‘chico to scrape a hole in the sand with his hands » little deeper than the jar. The same old man set fire to the bushee, and m about 15 minutes there was just a pile of ashe* left. These the ‘chico’ threw into the jar. While the burning was going on there vag a terrible row, some dancing and others singing. . ‘‘After all the ashes were put into the jar the old man lifted it and placed it in its resting place, and the ‘ chico ’ scraped all the sand in on the top of it. The ‘ bibies ’ then got large stones and made a small cairn, after which the old man put up a red and white flag on a large branch of a tree and pushed it down between the stones of the cairn. That finished the burial, but in going back they went through the same manoeuvres, dancing- and singing.* —Scotsman.