130 Part II: Outsiders
three-way junction; he should take the middle path that leads to a big river that
he must cross. His new parents live just on the other side. That is his destination.
A dramatic feature of every Hmong funeral is the killing of one or more
oxen for the mortuary feast, and the splendor of a funeral will be determined in
large part by the number of oxen killed and the number of people fed. This is one
of the reasons a man wants many children and many wives. An ox must be pro-
vided by each of his wives, one ox must come from each of his married sons, and
each of his married daughters should contribute to the purchase of a single ox.
Other relatives contribute a pig, rice, paper money, alcohol, and incense. On the
day before the burial, these people arrive at his house with these gifts, firing a gun
twice to announce their arrival. The household fires twice in welcome, and pipes
are blown as the large party enters the house. In the evening, all these relatives
tell the deceased what they have given him and wish him well on his journey.
On the morning of the burial day, the body is finally carried out of the
house and placed in the coffin. Strings tie each of the gift-oxen to the corpse,
which the dead man is asked to accept. The oxen are then killed with axe blows
to the head, and the internal organs cut out and cooked for a morning meal.
The oxen are divided up and distributed according to formula to everyone who
has played a role in the funeral rites.
Carrying the corpse to the selected burial site can be a dangerous prospect.
The location will generally be a great distance away, on the crest of a hill,
selected by geomancy in the process described earlier. There is never such a
thing as a Hmong cemetery, for even two bodies buried nearby may quarrel
over the land, which becomes their “fields” in the afterlife. The real danger,
however, is that the souls of the funeral party may try to follow the soul of the
dead man, so the souls of the living are called and ordered to stay in the house-
hold when the dead man is taken away. Then a few close relatives carry the cof-
fin to the grave site. Someone in the lead blows the pipes and a daughter of the
dead man carries a torch to light the way. In the rear is a man who tosses paper
money to spirits along the way for permission to let the dead man pass.
A third of the way toward the burial place, the pipes stop playing and the girl
throws away the lighted torch and runs back home in order to confuse the ghost in
case it wants to return. A little further, they stop again, and the ghost is told that in
his “house,” that is, his grave, there is plenty of food and that is where he should
henceforth eat. The coffin is put in the grave first, then the body placed inside, and
the dead man is told that if he gets hungry in the next three days, there is money
and rice for him that he can cook for himself. On the third day his family will
bring him food and build him a “house,” a cairn of stones to mark his grave.
This and further ceremonies over the next year have the important function
of setting the spirits of the dead into an appropriate new relationship to their
former household. On the one hand, any animosity the dead might have
toward the family must be headed off by respectful and generous words and
gifts. The dead must not come back at inappropriate times to cause trouble. On
the other hand, they should come back on certain occasions, especially at the