Béu : Chapter 7
..... How words change class
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... Adjectives => Nouns
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gèu = green : geumai = greenness
naike = sharp : naikemi = sharpness
Note ... the affix changes depending on whether the word is a monosyllable or a non-monosyllable.
Note ... gèu can also mean "the green one". You can tell from context whether it is an adjective or a noun. All adjectives behave likewise.
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... Adjectives (and nouns) => Verbs
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gèu = green : geudo = to greenify, to turn green, to become green.
naike = sharp : naikedo = to sharpen, to become sharp
keŋkia = salty : keŋkido = to salt, to add salt
Note ... when the adjective ends is a diphthong (and is non-monosylabic) the last vowel is dropped.
??? = bicycle : ???do = to bicycle
For example ...
(pà) geudari = I have turned green
(pás) geudari ʃì = I have turned it green
ós geudori ʃì = She turned it green
Note ... in the above example the A argument can't be omitted. If it was the meaning would be "it turned green".
Note ... dó by itself is a verb meaning "to do". All other monosyllabic verbs beginning with a single consonant have diphthongs for their infinitive form.
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... Verbs => Adjectives
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.. The passive participle
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The passive participle is formed by affixing -wai to the infinitive. For example ...
kludau = to write : kludwai = written
solbe = to drink : solbwai = drunk (not in the sense of intoxicated)
and because of the strong tendency of adjectives to also serve as nouns ...
kludwai = the one that is written => a note
solbwai = "that which has been drunk"
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.. The active participle
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Sometimes also called the habitual participle.
The active participle is formed by affixing -ana to the infinitive. For example ...
kludau = to write : kludana = "writing" or "fond of writing"
solbe = to drink : solbana = drinking
and because of the strong tendency of adjectives to also serve as nouns ...
kludana = the one who is always writing => writer/author
solbana = "he who drinks" or "a drinker"
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.. The present participle
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The present participle is formed by affixing -la to the infinitive. HOWEVER in this case the final vowel of the infinitive is not deleted. Rather it is kept but if it is a diphthong it drops its second half. For example ...
kludau = to write : kludala = "writing just now"
solbe = to drink : solbela = "drinking at this moment"
and because of the strong tendency of adjectives to also serve as nouns ...
kludala = "the one writing just now" or just "the writer"
solbela = "the one now drinking" or just "the drinker"
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.. The participle of obligation
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Actually the form solbe by itself can be a participle when it qualifies a noun. For example ...
moʒi solbe = the water that must be drunk
toili kludau = the book that must be written
and because of the strong tendency of adjectives to also serve as nouns ...
kludau = that which must be written => an (school) assignment
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... Verbs => Nouns
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Actually verbs in their infinitive form can be considered nouns also. For example ...
dó = to do, to make ... but it can also be translated as "deed" or "action".
If an action can result in (or be strongly connected to) some physical object. In that case the name of the physical object is derived from the verb by deleting the final vowel of the infinitive and adding "u". For example ...
dó = to make, to produce : dú = a product, an artifact
nàu = to give : nù = a gift
solbe = to drink : solbu = a drink
The -u ending always gives a countable noun ... also tangible, sort of.
To produce uncountable nouns the suffix -van is often used. For example ...
nauvan = tribute, tax
dovan = products
solbevan = drinks
yái = to have : yaivan = possessions, property
glà = to store : glavan = reserves
Note ... yú is not a noun, but a particle that indicates possession, occurs after the "possessed" and before the "possessor.
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... Nouns => Adjectives
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keŋko = salt : keŋkia = salty, having salt : keŋkua = not salty, lacking salt
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..... kolape
This is a complement clause construction. In English there are 7 types of complement clauses, in béu there are only 3.
A complement clause is call a kolape in béu. The three types are briefly summarised below and then each of the types is discussed in more detail.
1) I remembered writing the book ... this conveys that the whole process of locking the door is going thru the speakers mind ... ???ari pá kludau toili
The béu form above looks similar to the English "I remembered to write the book". However this is NOT the meaning.
To say "I remembered to write the book" in béu you would say ???ari tá toili (rà) kludu ... see the section about participles.
2) I thought that I wrote the book ... takes the same form in béu ... olgari tá kludari toili
3) He asked me whether I had written the book ??? ... askori (pavi) tavoi kludari toili
kolape jù
In béu the word order is usually free. This is not true in a kalope jù
jonoS rì kéu = John was bad
(pà solbe moze pona sacowe)S rì kéu = my drinking the cold water quickly was bad
Notice that pà solbe moze pona sacowe behaves as one element. It has the same function as "John" in the previous example.
The word order inside kolape jù is fixed. It must be S V or A V O for a transitive clause (any other peripheral arguments are stuck on at the end).
Also notice that the ergative marker -s which is usually attached to the A argument is dropped. Actually for pronouns it is not just the dropping of the -s, but a change of tone also, so this form is identical to the O form of the pronoun.
The kolape above, if expressed as a main clause would be.
(pás) solbari saco* moze pona = I drank the cold water quickly
Other examples ;-
wàr solbe (I want to drink) is another example. (wò = to want)
klori jono timpa jene (he saw John hitting Jane) ... (klói = to see)
kolape jù? can be considered as a noun phrase and the fixed ordering of elements can be seen as a reflextion of the strict order of elements in a normal noun phrase
Subject1 Head2 Object3(Peripheral arguments4 x n)
1) The "A" argument or the "S" argument.
2) The verb.
3) The "O" argument, which would of course be non-existent in an intransitive clause.
4) Adverbs and everything else.
A gomia such as solbe can be regarded as a proper noun** and can be the head of a cwidauza (see a previous section)
or it can be the head of a kalope jù. But these two constructions are always distinct. For example you couldn't append a determiner to a kalope jù ... (or could you ??)
* in a main clause the adverb can appear anywhere if suffixed with -we. But in kalope jù the adverb must come after the Subject, Verb and Object.
** A gomia never forms a plural or takes personal infixes in the way a normal noun does. Also it only takes a very reduced subset of pilana, so a gomia can be regarded as an entity half way between nounhood and verb hood. For that reason I consider gomia as a part of speech, standing alongside "noun" and "verb".
kolape tá
In this form the full verb* is used, not the gomia. Also we have a special complementiser particle tá which comes at the head of the complement clause.
wàr tá jonos timporu jene = I want John to hit Jane
klori tá jonos timpori jene (he saw that John hit Jane) ... (klói = to see)
*Well not quite the full form. Evidentials are never expressed.
kolape tói
This is equivalent to English word "whether".
sa RAF kalme Luftwaffe kyori Hitler olga tena => The RAF's destruction of the Luftwaffe, made Hitler think again. ... here a gomiaza acts as the A-argument.
*in the combinations where sacowe immediately followed solbe it is merely saco
Things to think about
what is a gomiaza
Can this be used for a causative construction ??
..... Some linguistic terms in béu
By the way, while we are at it (defining linguistic terms)
nandau = word
semo = a clause ... from the verb "to say" sema
semoza = a sentence
jaudauza = a verb phrase or verb complex (commonly called a "predicate" by linguists). This is the verb together with the five modals.
feŋgi = a particle ... given above
plofa = a participle (P) ... there are 3 participles in béu
ʔasemo = a relative clause
kalope = a complement clause. There are three types of these ... kalope jù, kalope tà and kalope tavoi
A kalope jù is a gomiaza if it is more than one word long, if only one word long it is simply a gomia
A gomiaza can comprise of subject ... gomia ... object ... adverb ... other peripheral terms
The term gomuaza is not used. You would use the word semo meaning clause.
taifi (that which is to be tied ??? check participles) = copular subject
taifo = copular complement
taifau = to tie
taifana = a copula
..... The parts of speech of béu
"Parts of speech" is linguistic jargon, which is referring to the different "classes" of words a language might have. For example "nouns", "verbs", etc. etc.
In fact nouns (N), verbs (V) and adjectives (A) are the big three, and after some debate over the last 30 years, it has been agreed that every language has these three word classes.
In béu a noun is called cwidau (cwì meaning a physical object), a verb is called jaudau (jàu meaning "to move"), and an adjective is called saidau (sái meaning "a colour").
There are other classes of words in béu as there are in other languages. béu has adverbs (wedau) but these don't really come into their own, being more a form an adjective takes in certain situations. Also a lot of words that are called adverbs in English are called particles (feŋgia) (F) in béu. Particles are a type of hold-all category for a word that doesn't fit into any of the other classes. Under the term "particle" many subclasses can be defined, and in fact some subclasses have a class membership of one. If you come across a word that can not easily be equated with any of the major word classes ... well then you probably have a feŋgi.
It is necessary to talk about another part of speech which i will refer to by the béu term gomia* (G). It is a form of the verb which is called the "infinitive" in the Western linguistic tradition.
* goma means "tail" and gomia means "tail-less". The reason for this is that a verb in a sentence functioning as verbs commonly do, has person, number, tense, aspect and evidentiality expressed on the verb as series of suffixes, hence the "tail". These items are not expressed on the gomia.
In contradistinction to gomia we have gomua (jaudau gomua to give the concept its full title) which is a verb in a sentence functioning as verbs typically do.
For example solbarin (I drank, so they say) is a gomua.
solbarin is built up from the gomia "solbe" ... first you delete the final vowel => then you add "a" meaning first person singular subject => then you add "r" meaning that the mood is indicative (as opposed to imperative or subjunctive) => then you add "i" meaning simple past tense => and finally you add "n" which is an evidential, meaning that the utterance is based on what other people have said.
solbarin is gomua pomo or "a full tail verb".
The three evidential markers are all optional, so they can quite easily be dropped. solbari (I drank) is what is called gomua yàu or "a long tail verb".
solbis (you lot drink) and solbon (let him drink) are gomua wái or "a short tail verbs" ... the first is an example of the imperative and the second is an example of the subjunctive (more linguistic jargon ... sorry).
solbai is called an part verb ???
== ..... Another relativizer
There is another relativized in béu that refers back to a whole proposition. In English "which" is sometimes given this function. For example ...
1) ... John had completely forgotten his wedding anniversary which really annoyed his wife.
béu uses nài in a similar way to how which is used in the above example. Also the same shorthand form is used for nài and nái. However no misunderstanding is possible since nài always has a pause before it (how do I do a comma ?) and nái always is immediately after a noun.
To give and to receive
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náu = "to give" or "to allow" or "to let".
mài = "to receive" or "to get" or "to undergo"
1) jonos nori toili jeneye = John has given a book to Jane
2) jonos nori jene toilitu = John gave Jane a book
Note ... toili takes the instrumental case ... HIGHLIGHT in light green, similar to ... adverbs + "to come and go"
3) jenes mori toili (jonovi) = Jane has received a book (from John) ... "receive" in the perfect aspect equates to "have" or "got"
The above 3 examples describe the same action but from two different perspectives.
Note ... in each of these 3 examples, all 3 arguments are marked differently
Note ... in 2) jene takes the ergative, although the action initiated by her would be minimal (if anything at all).
The words kyò "show" and fyá "tell" follow the same pattern as 1) and 2) ... at least when the object is a noun and not a complement clause.
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The second passive construction
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We have already seen that every transitive verb can be made into an intransitive by infixing w in the verb.
However they is a second method of generating passives.
jene mori timpa (hí jono) = jane has been hit (by john) ... where mori is the word mài "to receive"
Notice that when the subject receives a noun, then it will take the ergative case. However when the subject receives an infinitive verb, then no ergative case is affixed.
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The reciprocal construction
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The reciprocal particle can be said to historically come from both náu and mài.
jonos jenes timpura namai = "John and Jane are hitting each other" = "John and Jane hit one and other"
namai the reciprocal particle (usually comes immediately after the verb) is obviously derived from the phrase náu mài
Note ... lè "and" is not used when two nouns in the ergative case occur adjacent to each other.
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To allow or let
náu is used to express "to allow" or "to let".
John has let Jane go => jonos nori jene jòi ... ?? or should it be jìa ... if jòi was considered a pure noun it would be *joitu
Note that this construction mirrors the construction in 1) above, with an infinitive substituted for indirect object (i.e. bé "to go" for toili "book").
The causative construction
du = "to do" or "to make"
The causative construction
(pás) dari jono dono = I made john walk
(pás) dari jono timpa jene = I made John hit Jane ... in this sort of construction, jono, timpa and jene must be contiguous and jono should be to the left of jene.
(pás) dari oye timpa glá = I made him/her hit the woman
(pás) dari oye dono = I made him/her walk
Alternatively we can use the tá particle and drop the -ye
(pás) dari tá (ò) donor = I made him/her walk
Is the below OK ?
mari náu jòi = I received permission to go = I received to give to go.
dari jene dono = I made Jane walk
jene dowori dono = Jane has been made to walk
nari jene dono = I allowed Jane to walk
jene nawori dono = Jane has been allowed to walk
jene nawori dono = "Jane has been made to walk" ??? OR "Jane has been allowed to walk"
jene mori dono = "Jane has been made to walk" OR "Jane has been allowed to walk"
(pà) mori solbe moze (hí jono) = I was made to drink the water (by John)
moze mori solbe (hí jene) = The water has been drunk (by Jane)
Who/what is responsible
1) pintu lí mapa = the door became closed ... this uses the adjective form of mapa and the "copula of becoming" láu.
Agent => Anything ... It could be that the agent was the wind ... or even some evil spirits ... use your imagination.
2) pintu bwori mapau = the door was closed ... this is the standard passive form. (By the way ... I don't mean pintu rì mapa when I say "the door was closed")
Agent => Human and the action deliberate ... It strongly implies that the agent was human but is either unknown or unimportant.
Now lets consider gèudu = "to turn green" ... ambitransitive, S and A ... as in English.
1) báu lí gèu = The man became green ... this uses the adjective form of gèu and the "copula of becoming" láu. This form has no implication as to the humanness of the agent.
Agent => Anything and the action could be accidental.
2) báu bwori geudu = The man was made green ... this is the standard passive form. It strongly implies a human agent but the agent is either unknown or unimportant.
Agent => Human and the action deliberate
3) báus tí geudori = The man made himself green ... this form implies that there was some effort involved and definitely a deliberate action.
Agent => The man and the action deliberate
..... The Calendar
The béu calendar is interesting. Definitely interesting. A 73 day period is called a dói. 5 x 73 => 365.
The phases of the moon are totally ignored in the béu system of keeping count of the time.
The first day of the dói is nelauja followed by hija, then auja lozoja celaija and then aiva etc. etc. all the way upto kiʔoka.
The days to the right are workdays (saipito) while the days to the left are days off work (saifuje). Each month has a special festival (hinta) associated with it. These festivals are held in the three day period comprising lozoga, celaiga, helauga. The five "months" are named after the 5 planets that are visible to the naked eye. The 5 big festivals that occur every year are also named after these planets.
| mercury | ʔoli | Month 1 | doiʔoli | Xmas... on 21,22,23 Dec | hinʔoli |
| venus | pwè | Month 2 | doipwe | festival on 4,5,6 Mar | himpwe |
| mars | gú | Month 3 | doigu | festival on 16,17,18 May | hiŋgu |
| jupiter | gamazu | Month 4 | doigamazu | festival on 28,29,30 July | hiŋgamazu |
| saturn | yika | Month 5 | doiyika | festival on 9,10,11 Oct | hinyika |
hinʔoli ... This is the most important festival of the year. It celebrates the starting of a fresh year. It celebrates the stop of the sun getting weaker. It is centred on the family and friends that you are living amongst. Even though eating and drinking are involved in all the five festivals, this festival has the most looked-forward-to feasts.
himpwe ... People gather at various regional centres to compete and spectate in various music and poetry competitions. Sky lanterns are usually released on the last day of this festival. On the first two days of the festival, what is called the "fire walk" is performed. This is to promote social solidarity. Each locality comprising up to 400 people build a fire in some open ground. These people are divided into 2 sections. One section to walk and one section to receive walkers. The walkers are further divided into groups. Each group is assigned another fire to visit and they set of in single file. Each of them carries a torch (a brand) ignited from the home fire. Upon arriving at the fire that they have been assigned (involving a walk of, maybe, 5 or 6 miles) they throw their brand into the fire as their hosts sing the "fire song". After that the visitors are offered much drinks and snacks by their hosts. There is considerable competition between the various localities to be the most generous host. The routes that people must go have been chosen previously by a central committee, but the destination is only revealed to the walkers just before they set out. On the second day the same thing happens but the two sections, the walkers and the receivers of the walkers, swap over rolls.
hiŋgu ... It is usual to get together with old friends around this time and many parties are held. Friends that live some distance away are given special consideration. Often journeys are undertaken to meet up with old acquainances. Also there is a big exchange of letters at this time. The most important happenings of the last year are stated in these letters along with hopes and plans for the coming year.
hiŋgamazu ... This festival is all about outdoor competitions and sporting events. It is a little like a cross between the Olympics games and the highland games. People gather at various regional centres to compete and spectate in various team and individual competitions. However care is taken that no regional centre becomes too popular and people are discouraged from competing at centres other than their local one. Also at this festival, a "fire walk" is done, just the same as at the "himpwe" festival.
hinyika ... Family that live some distance away are given special consideration. Often journeys are undertaken for family visits and ancestors ashboxes are visited if convenient. This is the second most important festival of the year. People often take extra time off work to travel, or to entertain guests. Fireworks are let of for a 2 hour period on the night of helauga. This is one of the few occasions where fireworks are allowed.
By the way, when a year changes, it doesn't change between months, it changes between lozoga and celaiga.
Every 4 years an extra day is added to the year. The doiʔoli gets a helauca.
béu also has a 128 year cycle. This circle is called ombatoze. There is a animal associated with every year of the ombatoze.
These animals are ;-
| wolf | weasel/ermine/stoat/mink | bullfinch | badger |
| whale | opossum | albatross | beautiful armadillo |
| giant anteater | lynx | eagle | cricket/grasshopper/locust |
| reindeer | springbok | dove | gnu/wildebeest |
| spider | Steller's sea cow | seagull | gorilla |
| horse | scorpion | raven/crow | python |
| rhino | yak | Kookaburra | porcupine ? |
| butterfly | triceratops | penguin | koala |
| polar bear | manta-ray | hornbill | raccoon |
| crocodile/alligator | wolverine | pelican | zebra |
| bee | warthog | peacock | capybara |
| bat | bear | crane/stork/heron | hedgehog |
| frog | lama | woodpecker | gemsbok |
| musk ox | chameleon | hawk | cheetah |
| lion | frill-necked lizard | toucan | okapi |
| dolphin | aardvark | ostrich | T-rex |
| kangaroo | hyena | duck | driprotodon(wombat) |
| shark | cobra | kingfisher | gaur |
| dragonfly | mole | moa | chimpanzee |
| turtle/tortoise | N.A. bison | black skimmer | panda |
| jaguar | snail | cormorant/shag | Cape buffalo |
| rabbit | colossal squid | vulture | glyptodon/doedicurus |
| beetle | seal | falcon | pangolin |
| megatherium | woolly mammoth | flamingo | baboon |
| elk/moose | squirrel | blue bird of paradise | lobster |
| tiger | gecko | grouse | seahorse |
| jackal/fox | octopus | swan | lemur |
| elephant | swordfish | parrot | auroch |
| giraffe | ant | puffin | iguana |
| mouse | crab | swift | mongoose/meerkat |
| smilodon | giant beaver | owl | mantis |
| camel | goat | hummingbird | walrus |
Each of these animals above is a toze, which can be translated as "token", "icon" or "totem ". omba means a circle or cycle. So you can see where the name for the 128 year period comes from.
The very last helauca of every ombatoze is dropped.
ombatoze is sometimes translated as "life", "generation" or "century"
xxx means a 4 year period. It also means "calendar".
The start of time
Year 2000 had 365.242,192,65 days
Every year is shorter than the last by 0.000,000,061,4 days
By adding one day every 4 years we get a 365.25 day year
If we then drop one day every ombatoze we get a 365.242,187,5 day year (actually very close to the actual year length)
Before 2084, the actual year will be bigger than the calendar year – after 2084 the actual year will be smaller than the calendar year
For this reason midnight, 22 Dec 2083 is designated the fulcrum of the whole system. That day will be time zero.
At the moment we are in negative time.
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The cremation oval
Actually called "sky gate/door" in béu.
Below is shown a typical cremation oval. Typically they are placed in a wilderness area, maybe near the parish boundary. The platform is about 1.5 m high with steps all around. It has the shape of an oval, usually with the two sharp curves cut off. In the two foci we have two objects.
On the east side we have the kilo. It is a structure about 1.7 m high (standing on a plinth about .2 m high), which is in the shape of the Gherkin in London. Metal bands can be seen on its surface. Multifaceted with each facet made of a pink glass. It has a silver ball on top, about 15 inch in diameter.
On the west side we have the ulgu. It is a structure about 1.7 m high (standing on a plinth about .2 m high), which is in the opposite shape from the Gherkin in London. Metal bands can be seen on its surface. Multifaceted with each facet made of a purple/mauve glass. It has a golden ball on top, about 15 inch in diameter (its top side is jet black).
Six poles (called jomo) can be seen on the oval. These must be changed to suit every cremation. After a cremation they are left as they are, until the next cremation.
I have named them NM (north middle), NW (north west), SW (south west), SM (south middle), SE (south east) and NE (north east).
These jomo can have 1 of 4 types of head (shown below). From L => R, I have named these the empty head, single head, double head and multiple head.
A jomo is about 5 m high. The second and third tops are about 1.3 m high. The diameter of the 4th top is 2.1 m although on occasions this must be increased.
The jomo are made of varnished wood and are square in cross-section, 25 cm at the bottom, narrowing to 21 cm at the top. The 2 middle tops (see below) can be constructed from anything. However they should look solid and all faces should glow in the dark (not necessarily at the edges). The single and double heads gradually tapper to a point. They are square in cross-section, all the way to the point.
Basically the choice of head reflects the descendants that the deceased left behind. If the deceased had no living descendants at the time of death, then all the jomo have empty heads. This is a greyish/white sphere.
If the deceased has living descendants then the NM jomo will have a single head. This head represents the oldest child (legally recognised child). If the first born was male, this head will be orientated out of the oval, if female into the oval.
The second oldest child is also represented by a single head. If this child was male, the next empty jomo in a clockwise direction from the NM one receives a single head. If this child was female, the next empty jomo in a anti-clockwise direction thom the NM one receives a single head.
And so you do with the third, fourth, fifth and sixth child . If there are only six children, then yellow bunting is drapped from the "elbow" of the head representing the six child. If this child was female, yellow bunting is drapped from the "elbow" of the head, if this child was male blue bunting is draped.
If there were seven children, then the last head placed should be a double head. Yellow or blue bunting being drapped from the "elbows" depending upon the sex of the last two children born.
If there were eight or more children born to the deceased, then the last head placed should be a multiple head. Yellow or blue bunting being drapped equip-distantly around the rim of the head to represent the sex of these children. In exceptional circumstances (when many, many children produced), the diameter of the multiple head has to be enlarged.
If any of these children have predeceased the deceased, then red bunting is draped from the "elbow" of the head representing them (if the elbow already has another colour of bunting, then the red bunting is intermixed with the yellow or blue bunting).
So now we have sorted out what heads we want and we have given the NM jomo head an orientation.
Now we give the other single heads an orientation (the double head is always orientated, so that you can see it best from where the deceased's head is). The multiple head has no orientation : it can spin.
The orientation of the other single heads depend upon the difference between the birthday of the first child and the child represented by that jomo. Here are two example to explain the system ...
1) The second oldest child is male. His birthday is exactly 4 months after the first born's. His head will be orientated 150 degrees anti-clockwise with respect to the first born's.
2) The tird oldest child is female. Her birthday is exactly 1 month after the first born's. Her head will be orientated 30 degrees clockwise with respect to the first born's. Note that male is anti-clockwise and female is clockwise.
Now we come to the tilting of the jomo. All jomo with a single head are tilted. The maximum tilt (that is the maximum deviation from the vertical is 30 degrees.
To work out the tilt for every jomo we first must work out the "Index" for the deceased. The index is some amount between 0 and 1. The index is got from the graph above. The horizontal axis is age and the high of the plotted line at the age in which the deceased died, determines his index.
The plotted line is can be plotted (by using a certain formula) when A, B, C and D are known. A is a constant (minus 9 months). B and C and D can be determined from the last 12 years of parish records. (By the way there are two graphs, one for each sex. And A and B and C are sex dependant.
Assuming the deceased is a male ...
B = the average age over the past 12 years in which the boys(young men) "mastered the laws".
C = the average age over the past 12 years in which the males married plus 18 years.
D = the average age of death for males over the past 12 years. No deaths that occur before "C", contribute to this average.
If the deceased is female, we determine our graph using the same formula, but now we have ...
B = the average age over the past 12 years in which the girls(young women) "mastered the laws".
C = the average age over the past 12 years in which the females married plus 30 years.
D = the average age of death for females over the past 12 years. No deaths that occur before "C", contribute to this average.
OK so now we have worked out the index for the deceased. Now each post with a single head is assigned a random number between 0 and 1.
The tilt of a post = Index x Random number x 30 degrees.
So this tilt is applied to the relevant post. The tilt follows the orientation of the head.
As can be imagined, every cremation involves a bit of work to have all the jomo at the correct orientation and tilt.
The followers of the béu-way believe that it is their duty to the ones they interact with, to assure that these "around-ones" are free from pain, free from want, and free from a spoilt/marrd heart. When one is asleep you are free from these things. Also in death ... hence béu-way followers do not believe that it should be a time of grief when somebody close to you dies.
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The sky garden
After the body has been cremated, the ashes are put in a box and interred in the "sky garden". The sky garden takes the form of many wide "walkways" dug in the ground. From above it looks like a maze. The "ash boxes" are interred in either side of the walkways. There are four rows of these "ash boxes" deposited in each side.
A sky garden is ideally built on a gentle slope (in the Northern hemisphere, preferably south-facing to get the sun). It can be either built up from the ground or excavated into the earth.
The walkways are arranged in a sort of maze, so as to densely cover a piece of ground.
Although not absolutely necessary, most sky gardens have water running through them.
Below is a cut-away of a typical walkway. The bit in the centre (called "stream-work" in béu) has seats built into it. And also small flower beds. The inter-walkway walls support miniature trees or bushes. There is good drainage under the walkway. Mosses and small plants grow on the vertical surfaces. All in all, a sky garden is a very beautiful place, a place that should induce peace of mind to the people that wander its walkways or sit and ponder life.
The trick in designing a sky garden is too get the minimum slope needed to make this water flow. Ideally it should flow through all the walkways (not always possible). This is why a gentle slope is the best place to locate a sky garden.
The sky gardens are well looked after. They are an ideal place to visit if you want a bit of peace and quiet.
Over the hole in which the ash boxes are interred is placed a nice granite plaque with details of the life of the deceased. An image of the deceased at their prime is included. (With modern technology, people are now making in possible for visitors to see a multimedia presentation about the life of the deceased, this can be activated from a sensor in the plaque).
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Index
- Introduction to Béu
- Béu : Chapter 1 : The Sounds
- Béu : Chapter 2 : The Noun
- Béu : Chapter 3 : The Verb
- Béu : Chapter 4 : Adjective
- Béu : Chapter 5 : Questions
- Béu : Chapter 6 : Derivations
- Béu : Chapter 7 : Way of Life 1
- Béu : Chapter 8 : Way of life 2
- Béu : Chapter 9 : Word Building
- Béu : Chapter 10 : Gerund Phrase
- Béu : Discarded Stuff
- A statistical explanation for the counter-factual/past-tense conflation in conditional sentences
