730 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION G. 



and cooks food, on opening the oven nothing but dirt is found 

 in it. A story is told of a man who died and went there, his 

 wife also died, and when he saw her in Hades, he attempted 

 to embrace her, but he became mere dust on her bosom, and 

 failed in the attempt. One is reminded of Virgil's words, 

 though spoken not of attempted embraces, but of an 

 attempted war cry in Hades, 



" Inceptus clamor frustratiir hiantes." 

 It is said that Hades consists of several stages, one below 

 the other, and that a man dies in all six times, each time 

 descending to a low stage. The first time he dies in this 

 world and descends to Abokas. On entering Abokas he is 

 admitted among those who have died before him, and 

 recognises those whom he had formerly known in the world 

 and is recognised by them. His mother, however, treats him 

 with every evidence of contempt and hatred ; on the contrary 

 his paternal aunt treats him with great kindness. A man 

 who has been buried with honour, many pigs killed, much 

 food offered, &c., is comparatively well off in Abokas. As 

 the manner of his burial depends on his character among his 

 fellows and the amount of property he had acquired by 

 his industry, it is a great object of ambition with the natives 

 to have a good memory behind them and a large amount of 

 property that they may be honourably buried and corre- 

 spondingly happy in Hades. A worthless fellow is liable to be 

 buried with the burial of an ass, and to correspondingly suffer 

 in Hades. Wild with hunger there he can only get a hard 

 kind of shellfish to eat ; in eating it his jaws are torn and 

 bleeding, and he has time to bethink himself of the evil fate 

 his worthlessness has brought upon him. After an indefinite 

 time one dies in Abokas, and descends to the next lower 

 Hades called Magalululu. Again, after an indefinite time 

 he dies there and descends to Magatiro. Then in like 

 manner to Magaseasea. Then to Magatika. In Abokas he 

 is a natemate. In the succeeding places he, it seems, turns 

 into lower forms, as those of rats or snakes ; but this is doubt- 

 ful. Finally he disappears from Magatika like the down of 

 a certain plant carried away though the air, or a puff of white 

 vapour lost in the atmosphere, or the husk of a certain fruit 

 floating away out to sea. 



Mythology. 

 The idea of a creator, or of creation, in the strict sense of 

 their words, does not appear to have existed among the 



