After death there is a difference among the tribes as to the disposition of the body. With the Taiyal--also the Saisett, the smaller tribe of the North which seems to have borrowed Taiyal customs--the dead man or woman is simply left in the house which was his, or her, abode during life. In the case of a man, the weapons which he used during life, also pipe and tobacco, are left with the body; in the case of a woman, agricultural implements--hoe or digging-stick--and tobacco are left. The loom which she used, for some reason, is not left. This distinction--between agricultural implements and loom--apparently is made because the former is regarded as belonging exclusively to the individual woman, while the latter is used communally by a number of women of the village. At least such is the explanation given; but one cannot help wondering to what extent considerations of a practical nature enter into the distinction made, since a digging-stick or hoe, such as is used by Taiyal women, can be made in much less than a day, while it requires many days of labour to make a loom. With the bodies of both men and women a little food and wine are left--a share in the funeral feast, which is partaken of by every adult member of the village, including the nearest relations of the deceased, whose appetites do not seem to be affected by their loss. In all the “dead-houses” that I have seen the roof has been broken in. This I am told is done by the funeral party at the time that they abandon the house; but whether by thus covering the corpse with the broken-in roof--bamboo and grass--the intention is to save the body from desecration by dogs or other animals, or whether it is to prevent the spirit of the dead man from quitting the house in which his body has been left, is an open question. Certainly the living seem to stand much in dread of the _Ottofu_ of the recently deceased. This was impressed upon me more than once when I attempted to go near one or another of these abandoned houses of the dead. I was gently drawn back and made to understand that I was running very grave danger. As the Taiyal houses are built only of bamboo and of a sort of coarse grass which grows in the mountains, the erection of a new house for the family of the deceased is not a serious undertaking; more especially as all the men of the village assist at the building of the new house, which is always erected at a respectful distance from the one that has been given over to the dead. The new house is often erected in a single day.