They do not, however, hang all the yam, sugar-cane, banana and taro,
some of each being kept back in the houses for a purpose which will
appear hereafter.

The _ine_ and _malage_ fruits are not hung up at all, but are kept
in the _avale_ of the village _emone_ until the day of the actual
feast, when the various vegetables and fruits are, as will be seen,
put in heaps for distribution among the guests.

They then further decorate the posts with human skulls and bones,
which are hung round in circles below the yams and taro, but not
reaching to the ground. These are the skulls and bones of chiefs and
members of their families and sub-chiefs and important personages
only of the community, and the bones used are only the larger bones
of the arms and legs; skulls will, so far as possible, be used for
the purpose in preference to the other bones. These skulls and bones
are taken from wherever they may then happen to be; some of them will
be in burial boxes on trees, [70] some may be in graves underground,
and some may be hung up in the village _emone_; though it may here
be mentioned that those underground and in the _emone_ are not,
as I shall show later, in their original places of sepulture.

Finally croton leaves, tied in sheaves, are arranged round the posts
below the skulls and bones, so as to decorate the posts down to
the ground.

One other specially important matter must here be mentioned. There
will probably be in or by the edge of the village enclosure a high
box-shaped wooden burial platform, [71] supported on poles, and