It may be that the difference in the style of houses--consequently in the amount of time and labour involved in their construction--accounts for the difference in burial customs between the Taiyal, on the one hand, and certain of the southern tribes, notably the Paiwan and a portion of the Ami and Bunun, on the other. Those of the Ami who live immediately on the coast, in the vicinity of Chinese villages, have adopted the Chinese custom of inhumation of the dead outside the house; but those who live inland from the coast follow what was evidently their original custom, as it is still that of the Paiwan and the eastern Bunun; namely, the burial of the dead, in a crouching position, underneath the hearth-stone of the family home. Gruesome as the custom may seem to Western minds--and unhygienic--it is accepted as a matter of course by the tribes among whom it exists, and the idea of its exciting horror in the mind of anyone else seems to them incredible and absurd. The houses of the people who practise this peculiar form of inhumation are substantially built of slate (the mode of construction to be described in greater detail under a subsequent heading); one or more slabs of slate being used as a hearth, on which a fire is kept always burning--or, during the dry season, smouldering. When the death occurs of any member of the family, the body is bound with strands of coarse grass in a stooping, or crouching, posture. Then after the usual funeral ceremonies, both of wailing and of feasting, are concluded, the ashes are scraped from the hearth--care being taken, however, that the coals are kept “alive,” for should these be extinguished, or grow cold, it would be considered an omen of evil, and would also “displease the _Ottofu_” of the dead--and the hearth-stones are removed. A deep hole is dug in the place from which the stones have been moved. This is usually lined with grass before the body is lowered into it. The personal belongings of the deceased are also placed in the grave, which is then filled in, the hearth-stone replaced, and the fire rekindled. Then the life of the surviving members of the household goes on as before. After several members of the household have died, naturally the space occupied by the graves extends beyond that covered by the hearth-stones, but always the graves are grouped as closely as possible beneath the hearth. Whether originally this was done that the heat of the fire might the more quickly decompose the bodies I do not know. At the present time the only reason given for this custom is the stereotyped one, “Thus have our fathers always done”--an answer which makes one wonder, in connection with many customs, at what point in evolution man ceased to be satisfied with this reason for doing, or leaving undone, the things which make up the routine of his life.