640 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION G. 



with oil as a remedy in some complaints. The native surgeons 

 would often perform very rough and barbarous operations. 

 Should the patient die of an hereditary complaint, or if it 

 were apprehended that the disease would descend to the 

 children, the body was ojjened, and a jJost mortem examination 

 made for the disease. Any part or organ having an inflamed 

 appearance was removed and burned ; and they supposed 

 that then the complaint would be stayed in its progress to any 

 others of the family. 



As soon as the breath left the body, and even when the 

 patient was in extremis, loud lamentations and expostulations, 

 and sometimes bitter rejiroaches, were set up around the body, 

 as at an Irish wake. Some mourners would tear their clothes 

 to pieces, some would pull out their hair by handfuls, and 

 some would beat and bruise themselves with stones, &c., and 

 others would cut and gash themselves with sharp stones, shells, 

 and sharks' teeth, until their bodies were covered with blood. 



Funeral obsequies were observed with considerable ]:»arade. 

 The house was abandoned for a time to the dead and one or 

 two near relatives. No food was eaten in the house, all 

 meals were taken in a spot outside, under the trees, or in an 

 outhouse. Those who handled the corpse in any way were 

 tahu, and were not allowed to feed themselves, or touch any 

 food with their hands. They either ate their food as spread 

 for them on mats, oi- were fed by the hands of others ; and 

 were restricted to one meal a day, at nightfall. Generally 

 the body was buried within twenty-four hours after death. 

 In the case of chiefs oi* influential members of the tribe, the 

 body was kept out of the ground for four or Ave days — 

 •' lying in state " — to enable friends at a distance to visit it, and 

 to be present at the burial. 



The body was clad in the best clothes and ornaments of 

 the deceased, wrapped up in native cloth, or placed in a coflin 

 made from the body of a small canoe, with the ends cut off, 

 and the spaces filled up by boards. Scented flowers, beans, 

 and seeds would be placed around the spaces within the coffin. 

 The coffin was then enclosed by wrappers of new native 

 cloth and borne on the shoulders of male friends to the grave. 

 Cemeteries were unknown. The graves of a family were, 

 as a rule, on the family grounds near to the dwellings. The 

 graves were carefully dug in the earth or sand, the bottom 

 was covered with sleeping-mats, and the coffin gently laid on 

 the mats, as for repose. For a chief or man of distinction 

 fires were kept burning day and night in a line from the 



