1769. ROUND THE WORLD. 233 



val of two or three days, as long as the zeal and 

 sorrow of the parties hold out. The tears also which 

 are shed upon these occasions, are received upon 

 pieces of cloth, and offered as oblations to the dead : 

 some of the younger people cut off their hair, and 

 that is thrown under the bier with the other offerings. 

 This custom is founded upon a notion that the soul 

 of the deceased, which they believe to exist in a 

 separate state, is hovering about the place where the 

 body is deposited : that it observes the actions of 

 the survivors, and is gratified by such testimonies of 

 their affection and grief. 



Two or three days after these ceremonies have 

 been commenced by the women, during which the 

 men seem to be wholly insensible of their loss, they 

 also begin to perform their part. The nearest relations 

 take it in turn to assume the dress, and perform the 

 office, which have already been particularly described 

 in the account of Tubourai Tamaide*s having acted 

 as chief mourner to an old woman, his relation, 

 who died while we were in the island. One part of 

 the ceremony, however, which accounts for the 

 running away of the people as soon as this procession 

 is in sight, has not been mentioned. The chief 

 mourner carries in his hand a long flat stick, the 

 edge of which is set with shark's teeth, and in a 

 phrenzy, which his grief is supposed to have inspired, 

 he runs at all he sees, and if any of them happen to 

 be overtaken, he strikes them most unmercifully with 

 this indented cudgel, which cannot fail to wound 

 them in a dangerous manner. 



These processions continue at certain intervals for 

 five moons, but are less and less frequent, by a 

 gradual diminution, as the end of that time ap- 

 proaches. When it is expired, what remains of the 

 body is taken down from the bier, and the bones 

 having been scraped and washed very clean, are 

 buried, according to the rank of the person, either 

 within or without a Morai. If the deceased was an 



