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It may be explained that this ring of bamboo or cane is the form of summons used by the Khasi chiefs to their subjects when they wish to call them before them. Then a cock, u'iar umkoi, is sacrificed as a vicarious victim to bear the sins of the departed.
Fire in applied to the pyre, first by the kur, or members of the clan, and then by the children, if any, of the deceased. Another fowl, "u'iar padat," is sacrificed, its blood being smeared round the pyre three times, and across the corpse three times. The bier is then broken to pieces, the cloths having been removed from it previously.
On reaching it, a nongknia, or sacrificer, washes the bones three times and then places them in an earthen pot, tying up the mouth with a white cloth. Then, having taken three pieces of the hard yolk of an egg, three loaves of bread, the leg of the fowl, "u'iar krad lynti," and the lower jaw-bones of the animals which have been sacrificed, he places them inside the cairn and shuts the door.
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