Traditionary Stories. 



RELATING TO THE DEAD IN ANCIENT TIME. 



^ '\ Then confined with long illness, and death draws near, a person before his 

 \/\/ demise mutters in an indistinct and mumbling way, speaking of his relatives 

 and his gods, whether they be dead or whether they be living, in this man- 

 ner: "So and so is coming to get me to go." And thus he would rave until he died. 

 Whereupon all his relatives mourned, and if he was greatly beloved, they extracted 

 something from his corpse, such as a nail, a tooth, or perhaps some hair.' Here is an- 

 other thing: if something was seen issuing from the mouth or the eyes, possibly a 

 white substance accom]ianied with tears, the deceased truly loved his relatives ; his 

 c(>r])sc would then be kept uninterred four or five days, or even longer, to show 

 ihcir regard. 



If the cor]ise be left unburied, it should be placed in a box- unseen by the i)cople, 

 and should be arranged in this manner : Lower the head of the corpse until it is bowed 

 between the legs, draw up the legs so that the knees would project beyond the should- 

 ers ; slip in a cord at the knee-joints and fasten tightly ; the corpse then would be round 

 in ap]iearance.^ If there be anything which the deceased had, such as money, or 

 clothes or other articles, it is buried with the corpse. Eood is also left ; fish, or tobacco, 

 or kapa, it may be, so that the dead would not go hungry for food,^ or be cold; such is 

 what 1 have heard. 



In taking the corpse to be hidden, ° it is done by two or three of his friends ; not 

 bv many people. The burial is done at night, however, not in the day time. In dig- 

 ging the grave, it is dug round like a banana hole. The usual depth of the grave is 

 up to one's waist, that is, up to the loin of a man. In the olden time, this grave was 

 called a pahee (smooth place). Upon digging, take the dirt from the grave to another 

 l)lace in a fine mat, or a gourd, else the tracks would be shown. Should it be a new 

 house, the friends of the dead would dig from the outside till they reached within,® 

 without the house owner knowing anything about it. The people thought that if the 

 burial i)lace was known, the bones would be taken for fish hooks, and the flesh for 

 shark bait. There are some hidden graves among the ])recipices ; others are on plains. 

 There is a hidden grave at Haleakala; it is called the grave of Kaawa; it is right mau- 

 ka of Nuu, on Maui. This is the way the corpse is treated before being thrown into 



'This was termed his maurni (bait), a necessity for 

 the priest in seeking the acceptance (ir recognition of a 

 deceased person l)y his ancestral spirit (auniakna). Also 

 in sorcery, to the (Uiiiaiia or praying-to-death priest, one's 

 niaunn was looked upon as most efficacious. 



■r>o.x, or cofiin, brings this to modern times. In for- 

 mer days an old canoe or section thereof served the pur- 

 pose, as found in some ancient burial caves. 



'Not all bodies were prepared for bm-ial in this man- 

 ner. Some were laid full length in a basket formed of 

 a plaited coconut leaf. 

 (570) 



'The provisioning of a corpse with supposed needed 

 supplies bears out tlie idea of their belief that the soul 

 at death goes out and wanders on, seeking friends and 

 living much as in the present life. 



'Secret burial was the rule for the preservation of 

 one's bones, hence the care that even the traces of dirt 

 removed should not reveal a place of interment. 



"Under-house burials were probably chosen as a se- 

 curity, though instances are known where affection 

 was the prime motive. 



