382 Voyage of the Novara. 



have adopted the European custom of interring their dead 

 in certain special places. On the death of a chief or any- 

 exalted person, the female relatives of the deceased assemble 

 to mourn for a specific period, and betray their sorrow by 

 loud sobs and lamentations by day and dances by night. 

 The connections of the deceased cut oif their hair as a mark 

 of their sorrow. All the goods and clothes of the defunct 

 are carried away by whoever is nearest or first possesses him- 

 self of them, and this custom is so universal that objects thus 

 obtained are thenceforth considered as lawful property. 



The natives usually pray to the spirits of their departed 

 chiefs, whom they implore to grant them success in fishing, 

 rich harvests in bread-fruit and yams, the arrival of numerous 

 foreign ships with beautiful articles for barter, and a variety 

 of similar matters. The priests of their idols profess to be 

 able to read the future, and the natives place the most im- 

 plicit confidence in these predictions. They believe that the 

 priest is inspired with the spirit of a deceased chief, and that 

 every word they utter when in this excited state is dictated 

 by the departed. When any of these prophecies fail, as is 

 often enough the case, the cunning priest pretends that another 

 more powerful spirit has interfered, and forcibly prevented 

 the accomplishment of what they had foretold. 



The religion of this primitive people is very sim^^le. They 

 have neither idols nor temple, and although they believe in 

 a future state after death, they seem to have no religious 

 customs or festivals of any sort. Their notion of a future 



