They are laid in the water at the river's edge while the pyre is being prepared.
The first subject was a man.

When the Doms unswathed him to wash him, he proved to be a sturdily built, well-nourished and handsome old gentleman, with not a sign about him to suggest that he had ever been ill.

Dry wood was brought and built up into a loose pile; the corpse was laid upon it and covered over with fuel.

Then a naked holy man who was sitting on high ground a little distance away began to talk and shout with great energy, and he kept up this noise right along.

It may have been the funeral sermon, and probably was.