The mate-bian, the 'souls of the dead', are the venerated ancestors of the sacred house who form the focus of Tetum domestic cult. Incorporated through mortuary ritual into the community of the forebears, they watch over their descendants, uphold custom and the moral order, and dispense both fertility and affliction according to whether the living honour their obligations. The dead are held to gather at Mount Matebian, the 'mountain of the souls' in eastern Timor. The benevolent ancestral mate-bian are distinguished from the dangerous, unquiet ghosts of those not yet incorporated or of those who died badly.