V77 ( ^» THK PACIFIC OCEAN. 155 



down by it, they drew the cloth over themselves, 

 and then began a mournful kind of song, frequently 

 repeating, Aweh medoaah ! Aweh tanee ! Oh my fa- 

 ther ! Oh my husband ! A younger daughter was 

 also at the same time lying prostrate in a corner of 

 the house, covered over with black cloth, repeating 

 the same words. On leaving this melancholy scene, 

 I found at the door a number of their neighbours 

 collected together, and listening to their cries with 

 profound silence. I was resolved not to miss this 

 opportunity of seeing in what manner they dispose 

 of the body ; and therefore, after satisfying myself 

 before I went to bed that it was not then removed, 

 I gave orders that the sentries should walk backward 

 and forward before the house, and in case they sus- 

 pected any measures were taking for the removal of 

 the body, to give me immediate notice. However, 

 the sentries had not kept a good look-out, for in the 

 morning I found the body was gone. On inquiring 

 what they had done with it ? they pointed toward the 

 sea, indicating most probably thereby that it had 

 been committed to the deep, or perhaps that it had 

 been carried beyond the bay, to some burying-ground 

 in another part of the country. The chiefs are in- 

 terred in the Morals, or Heree-erees, with the men 

 sacrificed on the occasion by the side of them ; and 

 we observed that the Moral where the chief had 

 been buried, who, as I have already mentioned, was 

 killed in the cave after so stout a resistance, was hung 

 round with red cloth* 



