MICRONESIA. 89 



those of the cocoa-nut, bread-fruit, and pandanus trees. Seasons of 

 scarcity sometimes occur, during which the natives suffer severely, 

 and are reduced to eating the tender branches of trees to support 

 life. 



There is one high chief who has the supreme power; but in his 

 decisions on matters of importance he usually conforms to the opinion 

 of the whole body of chiefs. Mr. Paulding observes, "They have 

 different grades of rank in their society, from the high chief down to 

 the farthest removed from royalty." 



Their only worship consists in invocations to the Anit, said by Lay 

 to be the name of their supreme divinity ; but it seems likely that it 

 is only the general term for spirit. Thus Lay tells us, in his narra- 

 tive, that the natives will not take the fruit of the cocoa-nut tree which 

 has been planted near a grave, " for fear of displeasing their god 

 (emit)." But Mr. Paulding says (p. 136), "I was walking, back of 

 the huts, over a level green spot, enclosed by cocoa-nut trees, when 

 Lugorna came to me in great haste, and with a disturbed look beck- 

 oned me to come away, at the same time saying to Hussey that I must 

 not go there ; it was a place for the dead ; my presence would disturb 

 them, and bring spirits round the huts." Arid again, (p. 175), " If 

 one of them has wronged another who has died, he never eats without 

 throwing away a portion of his food to appease the ghost of the 

 departed." 



When a person dies, the body is enclosed in mats and buried, after 

 which, says Mr. Paulding, "a little canoe with a sail to it, and laden 

 with small pieces of cocoa-nut or other food, is taken to the sea-shore, 

 or the leeward part of the island, and sent off, with a fair wind, to 

 bear far away from the island the spirit of the deceased, that it may 

 not afterwards disturb the living." We are reminded by this of the 

 manner in which the natives of Tobi dispose of their dead, as before 

 described, and of the paddles buried with them at Banabe. After the 

 ceremony of interment is completed, two cocoa-nut trees are planted, 

 one at the head and the other at the foot of the grave. The fruit of 

 these is never eaten by the women, and not by the men until a con- 

 siderable time has elapsed after the burial. 



Their marriages are conducted with little ceremony, but the mar- 

 ried people are usually kind and faithful to one another. Lay never 

 knew an instance of separation after they had a family. It may here 

 be noticed, that at the massacre of the mutineers, to which the natives 

 were excited chiefly by the harshness with which some of the whites 



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