144 cook's first voyage juke, 



CHAP. XIV. 



THE CEREMONIES OF AN INDIAN FUNERAL PARTICULARLV 

 DESCRIBED : GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE SUBJECT : 

 A CHARACTER FOUND AMONG THE INDIANS TO WHICH THE 

 ANCIENTS PAID GREAT VENERATION,: A ROBBERY AT THE 

 FORT, AND ITS CONSEQUENCES : WITH A SPECIMEN OF IN- 

 DIAN COOKERY, AND VARIOUS INCIDENTS. 



On the 5th, we kept his Majesty's birth-day ; for 

 though it is the 4th, we were unwilling to celebrate 

 it during the absence of the two parties who had been 

 sent out to observe the transit. We had several of 

 the Indian chiefs at our entertainment, who drank 

 his Majesty's health by the name of Kihiargo, which 

 was the nearest imitation they could produce of King 

 George. 



About this time died an old woman of some rank, 

 who was related to Tomio, which gave us an oppor- 

 tunity to see how they disposed of the body, and 

 confirmed us in our opinion that these people, con- 

 trary to the present custom of all other nations now 

 known, never bury their dead. In the middle of a 

 small square, neatly railed in with bamboo, the awn- 

 ning of a canoe was raised upon two posts, and un- 

 der this the body was deposited upon such a frame as 

 has before been described : it was covered with fine 

 cloth, and near it was placed bread-fruit, fish, and 

 other provisions : we supposed that the food was 

 placed there for the spirit of the deceased, and, con- 

 sequently, that these Indians had some confused 

 notion of a separate state ; but upon our applying for 

 further information to Tubourai Tamaide, he told 

 us, that the food was placed there as an offering to 



their gods. They do not, however, suppose that the 







