Note 15 — Chapter VI · BUFFALO MIGRATIONS

First the buffaloes were caught and killed, and then the supposed corpse was taken to the burning-place, where a fire was made and the gourd in its mantle was put on the fire. The fire first burnt the cloak, and when it reached the gourd, this broke into two pieces. One piece became a little baby, a boy, which took a piece of the burnt cloak and went away in the air to Neikhârs, where there is a big tree, under which it alighted. The other piece of the gourd was split into many fragments by the heat of the fire, and some of the fragments were driven with such force that they killed a kite which had come to the funeral. (To this day the kite does not eat the buffaloes at funerals at Ushadr, though it does so at other places.) The father and mother followed the child to Neikhârs, where they found it sitting on the tree.15 The father and mother said to the child “Ena, itvâ”—“My son, come here,” and the boy came down and went to them, and was taken away by his parents to Melgars.