Warriors approached and placed small objects on the pyres, from handkerchiefs to coins or bracelets with medallions. They believed that by leaving a part of themselves with the deceased, they would help them avoid getting lost on their way to their ancestral home.
Some stood laughing and shouting obscene songs. Their friends would not have wanted them to spend these moments in sorrow and grief, at a time when a battle was about to break out and these moments might be their last among the living.
“Look, my dear, at the stars above,
Whisper to our children of my love.
Silence now, my beauty so fair,
Tell them I’m with foes who despair.
Their spirits can’t rest, facing my gaze,
For in death’s field, I met my last days.
Play, my love, while I sleep in the clay,
Only your weeping reach
