A good average for a great cremation is seldom tens or millions rupiahs, or about tens of thousands US Dollar. Cremations of princes however cost as much as fifty thousand dollars or more.

A Brahmanic priest is essential to a proper cremation and only the destitute would call upon a lesser priest the quality of the ceremonies the priest performs is determined by him. There is a choice of three kinds of cremation utama the highest, costing an average of one thousand dollars in fees for the priest alone; madia the medium class cremation for about five hundred dollars; and nista, the low for about fifty dollars. The rites for each are about the same the difference consisting in the quality and power of the magic formulas and symbols and the sort of holy water used, the credentials given by to the soul entering heaven and the more or less thorough purification of the soul.

It is always a good resource in a great cremation of to provide a retinue of souls for his trip into the beyond and to profit at the same time by the magical and social advantages of a more elegant cremation. Sometimes people could witness the release of two hundred and fifty souls of commoners who accompanied a member of the royal family. It is of extreme importance, however, to keep within the rules prescribed for each caste, the breach of which would bring dreadful punishment upon guilty relatives who in their craving for ostentation should use rites or materials for the accessories allotted to a higher caste. These rules are at times infringed and it becomes the source of malicious gossip if a family uses a cow instead of a lion to burn their deceased, or if they have more roofs in their tower than is their right. In a few cases the right of cremation is denied, as in the death of exiles from the island. Lepers are buried in hidden places and their redemption, is carried out by pious persons, secretly and through an effigy

To have got rid of the corpse that, with its uncleanliness, bound the soul to the material world, despite the strenuous sacrifices of the family and the countless rites performed does not yet mean that the duties of the descendants are over. It is now essential that the liberated soul be consecrated by further ceremonies, often even more elaborate than the cremation itself, as one of the pitara, the full-fledged ancestral deities. After this the soul receives the name of Dewa Yang, literally a " God," and is allotted a resting-place in the family temple to protect the household.

There are further minor ceremonies within the next twelve days after the remains have been disposed of, such as the metuhun, when the relatives congregate and through a medium, usually a medicine-man, a balian in a trance, communicate with the soul to ask if all is well. I was told that once the balian encountered difficulties in establishing contact with the soul, but an old woman relative suddenly went into ecstasy and spoke to the spirit of the dead man in order to inform the anxious family of the success of the cremation. Then there are the ngerebuhin, when the soul receives offerings, and the mapegat, the final breaking of the last ties with this earth, symbolized by burning a thread and smashing egg-shells. The relatives, the house, and the precious objects used in the ceremonies that were not meant to be destroyed have still to be cleansed from the impurity they acquired by their contact with the dead. But the greatest of all the funeral ceremonies, the consecration of the soul, is the mukur, when the deceased is symbolized by an object called a "blossom," by means of which the ceremonies are performed.

The mukur takes place forty-two days after the cremation and consists in offerings and magic incantations by the high priest, meritorious acts to help the travelling soul to attain its highest goal, the heaven allotted to it by caste, and to predispose the supreme judges to overlook minor sins and be lenient. There are various heavens, each on a higher and higher level, the stages of the cosmic meru, symbolized by the temple pagodas and by the cremation towers. Each heaven is dedicated to one of the castes: the highest is of course for the Brahmana Siwa, the next for the Brahmana Budda, and the lower ones for the Satrias and wesias. The common people have to be content to go to the swarga, the purgatory where they enjoy a perfect life in pure Balinese earthly fashion.