232 cook's first voyage 1769- 



the water's edge, it is set down upon the beach ; the 

 priest renews his prayers, and taking up some of the 

 water in his hands, sprinkles it towards the body, 

 but not upon it. It is then carried back forty or fifty 

 yards, and soon after brought again to the beach, 

 where the prayers and sprinkling are repeated : it is 

 thus removed backwards and forwards several times, 

 and while these ceremonies have been performing a 

 house has been built, and a small space of ground 

 railed in. In the centre of this house, or Tupapow, 

 posts are set up to support the bier, which is at 

 length conveyed thither, and placed upon it, and 

 here the body remains to putrify till the flesh is 

 wholly wasted from the bones. 



These houses of corruption are of a size propor- 

 tioned to the rank of the person whose body they 

 are to contain ; those allotted to the lower class are 

 just sufficient to cover the bier, and have no railing- 

 round them. The largest we ever saw was eleven yards 

 long, and such as these are ornamented according to 

 the abilities and inclination of the surviving kindred, 

 who never fail to lay a profusion of good cloth about 

 the body, and sometimes almost cover the outside of 

 the house. Garlands of the fruit of the palm-nut or 

 "pandanus, and cocoa-leaves, twisted by the priests in 

 mysterious knots, with a plant called by them, Ethee 

 no Moral, which is particularly consecrated to funeral 

 solemnities, are deposited about the place ; provision 

 and water are also left at a little distance, of which, 

 and of other decorations, a more particular descrip- 

 tion has been given already. 



As soon as the body is deposited in the Tupapow, 

 the mourning is renewed. The women assemble, and 

 are led to the door by the nearest relation, who strikes 

 a shark's tooth several times into the crown of her 

 head : the blood copiously follows, and is carefully 

 received upon pieces of linen, which are thrown 

 under the bier. The rest of the women follow this 

 example, and the ceremony is repeated at the inter- 



